The Guardian
by Greatcow
Summary: A scene inspired by Dishwasher 1910's awesome pic The Goddess. Pyrrha has now become the fall maiden. But an afternoon reflection makes her question all the sacrifices needed to get her there, including the one of her closest teammate.
1. Chapter 1

**Good afternoon Folks! I'm still chugging away on legacy, but I figured I'd post this short scene I cooked up for the rwby/g on 4chan. It got inspired in large part by a pic by Dishwasher 1910 called The Goddess (Also the attached pic of the story). It's currently being worked on their tumblr, so make sure to go check it out!**

 **In any case, just a short scene to tide you over until the next chapter. Thanks for reading as always!**

"And that concludes today's report. Repairs are continuing throughout Vale and we hope to have Beacon Academy back to fully operational status within the month."

Ozpin thumbed the activation button on his scroll pad and it hummed quietly before shutting off. He smiled.

"Thank you Professor. I'm so glad to see things are recovering so quickly. Were my efforts in the agricultural district enough? I'm still trying to come to terms with my new abilities."

"You have nothing to worry about Ms. Nykos. The crop fields have been fully cleansed of the Grimm taint thanks to your efforts."

"We've also received reports that the potato fields and apple orchards are already bearing harvestable produce. It's only a matter of time before the other crops follow suit."

Pyrrha breathed a small sigh of relief. The fallen leaves surrounding her chair stirred gently, drawing an appreciative glance from Beacon's tired headmaster and her now ad hoc secretary.

"In any case, I'll retire for now. You've had a long day tending to your duties and visitors. I've cleared your schedule for the rest of the day so you can recuperate." He stood to leave.

"I'm so sorry Professor...making you do all of this. And on top of trying to rebuild Beacon..."

Ozpin leaned heavily on his cane. Though he hid it well, there was no denying that the incidents of the last several months had taxed him severely.

As much as he tried to put forth a brave face and soldier on, her new..."abilities" could see that he was a man running on very little sleep and too much of that abominable coffee he consumed every day.

While she enjoyed a full night's rest each evening, his duties kept him up far past the point she drifted off into the land of dreams.

A rough breeze blew through the outside veranda they had been sitting in, giving voice to her concerns.

"It's no trouble Ms. Nykos. I've long since come to the conclusion that the needs of this world far outweigh the needs of myself. There's so much to do, and never enough...time to complete it all..."

"Promise me you'll at least get to sleep at a reasonable hour...your heart is beating so-" She stopped herself, realizing too late she just examined him without his permission.

Ozpin merely chuckled. "Thank you for your concern Ms. Nykos. The mantle of the Maiden is a heavy burden, and I won't chide you for putting it to good use. Please have a good evening."

And with that he left her alone on the balcony, gently shutting the door behind him.

Pyrrha sighed as she slowly raised herself from her chair...or "throne" seemed more appropriate. It felt too ostentatious for her sensibilities, but she had been too humbled to decline the gift.

A local stonemason, grateful at her efforts at healing his sick child had crafted it out of a single block of the most ornate marble she had ever laid eyes upon.

The various layers flowed through the smooth stone like a gentle river, and glowed under the light of Beacon's shattered moon, giving even more misplaced credence to how blessed and worthy this seat of power would be for the new fall maiden.

Truthfully, she missed her chair from her dorm room. Though they were simply made, they were surprisingly comfortable, much more so than this stone eyesore.

But maidens didn't sit in such base accouterments. Especially one like her...

She frowned as she looked out upon the kingdom of Vale. Even from this distance, high up in a newly converted living quarters adjoining Beacon's CCT tower, she could see the sections of the town that had yet to rebuild.

Dark "scars" pockmarked the city, areas where utilities still hadn't been brought back online, or worse, rubble yet to be cleared.

Each day she would spend several hours in those "exclusion zones" as they were politely called. Purifying the land of the horrible taint that had been unleashed upon them by Cinder and her corrupted maiden powers. Seven days of a living hell she thought she would never see the end of...

Each time she ventured into those areas, she relived that weeklong nightmare. The tidal wave of Grimm entering the city, the rampant destruction, streets piled high with bodies, hunter, soldier and civilian alike. And Jaune...

She shuddered as the gentle wind kicked up more forcefully around her, the leaves scattering and twisting in miniature tornadoes as she tried to forget that horrible night.

A whine of servos.

A gurgle of hydraulic fluid.

Sounds that would normally be obscured by the raging winds around her carried through to her ears.

"Pyrrha? Are you ok?" A metallic voice called out from the dim light of the balcony.

She turned as the winds calmed. Heavy footfalls echoed dully on the polished stone floor as the daily reminder of how much she had lost approached her. Jaune emerged from behind a pillar, trying and failing to look inconspicuous while she had been attending matters with Ozpin.

"I'm fine Jaune. Really...just...thinking about things." She paused then frowned at him. "You know, you don't have to stay so out of the way when people are here...you're not some piece of furniture to be set aside."

He raised his metallic arm to scratch the back of his helmet, only to bump the attached combat shield into the visor. The impact made a resounding clang that echoed loudly in the still night air.

"Dammit, I keep forgetting that thing's there..." He held out his shield arm and with another loud clank and whine of gears, the shield folded and retracted neatly back into his arm. The sound made both of them jump slightly.

"...and I don't think I'll ever get used to that sound either...heh..." The chuckle was filled with mirth, but coming through his sealed helmet made it sound hollow...sinister even. Like the punchline of a mean joke at his expense.

"And why do you keep your helmet fully sealed like that? We're not out in the zones right now, you don't have to keep it closed on my account." She grasped his remaining normal hand and squeezed it gently.

The faceless visor tilted down slightly. "Sorry Pyrrha, I figured after the incident yesterday with the mom and the kid it'd be better to...well...keep a lower profile."

She shook her head. "It's not your fault Jaune. Your appearance doesn't change the fact that you're a hero, both to me and to Vale. Never be ashamed of who you are, especially around me."

Each day they seemed to go through the same argument. Jaune trying more and more to blend into the background and Pyrrha trying to draw him back out.

She understood why he felt they way he did. He wasn't originally a large man, but the results of his new...situation had changed him considerably.

Standing now a full seven and a half feet tall, the once diminutive knight was now encased in a gleaming suit of cybernetic armor, courtesy of the Atlas military.

No, encased wasn't really the right word for it, grafted or bonded seemed more appropriate. His "reward" for saving Pyrrha during the final transfer process with the former fall maiden, an event Cinder tried to interrupt.

Jaune, Nora and Ren had bought the precious time needed to complete the transfer but he had been horrifically injured in the process. Massive aura reserves or not, no one man could withstand the combined might of Cinder's powers and that many Grimm at once.

Even now, she still had trouble fully recalling the events of that night. They came to her in flashes of noise and sight, mashed together in some freakish slideshow.

She remembered them bringing his mangled body in on a stretcher. Nora was sobbing hysterically. Ren looked like he was going to be sick, and all she could do was stare in mute horror as medics rushed him into an operating room.

Then the endless hours of waiting in Beacon's infirmary, people coming and going all in a blur of faces she couldn't recall even if she wanted to, save for one.

It was the massive retinue surrounding them that caused her to finally look up from the floor. Ironwood had come to visit them personally, surrounded by a horde of troops and hunters, the best of the those still able to fight.

It would have been an impressive and fearsome sight in any other situation, but that evening, they merely looked weak. Afraid. Terrified of how close they had come to oblivion.

Ironwood began talking. Saying something about how severe Jaune's injuries were, how he would lose both of his legs, possibly both arms. He might not make it through surgery.

The words washed over her in a haze, unable to follow the conversation, she honed in on a singular fact: Jaune might die? No, that couldn't be possible, he had the strongest aura in their entire class, Ozpin said so! This wasn't possible!

She remembered asking what they were going to do. Ironwood mentioned something about cybernetic biofusion. Experimental dust techniques to fuse metal to flesh. He personally wasn't sure it was going to work, that it had never been done on this scale before.

"He...might not come out of this the same way you remember him Pyrrha. We're confident this will save his life...but he won't be the same Jaune Arc you once knew. You'll need to be prepared for that."

She demanded to be present for the surgery. They initially denied her request. Said it was too dangerous, would interfere...she didn't care. Jaune was dying because he had protected her, she didn't want her last memory of him be him lying in a pool of his own fluids on a gurney.

After some back and forth and intervention on Ozpin's part, they relented and allowed her entrance into the operating theater.

Jaune's screams of pain would haunt her until her dying days, she was sure of it.

And the surgery was indeed a success. Him standing here was proof of it. He was alive and walking around under his own power, and better still they had managed to save an arm.

Yet for all that, it was a bittersweet victory.

She thumbed the manual release on his visor. It slid back with a gentle hiss of hydraulics, revealing a face she had fallen in love with all those months ago...or at least what was left of it.

The best thing that could be said was that they only had to replace a portion of his skull and only one of his eyes.

The techs had been practically giddy going over Jaune's replacement eye, or "Grimm-Eye" as they colloquially referred to it in the lab.

They boasted how it had sensory capabilities on par with an Atlas warship and how it would improve Jaune's combat and tactical prowess a hundred fold.

To visitors however, the ocular implant and the other crudely grafted augmentations to his skull gave him the the ghastly visage of an armored corpse.

That was probably what caused that little child to run screaming from the room earlier. The mother looked she had wanted to do the same but only held back out of politeness.

To Pyrrha however, it merely made her sad. Why had so many people had to suffer on her account? Why had Jaune had to sacrifice so much?

For as marvelous as the technologies were that saved Jaune's life, they also were the very chains binding him to it. He would never be free of that armor. It was both his protection and his sarcophagus.

All because of a damn madwoman believing in some crazy fairytale.

She closed her eyes to stop the tears welling up within them. She wanted to scream at the injustice of it all. Why did all of these good people have to suffer on account of these accursed powers?

The maidens were supposed to heal and help the world! Yet all the Fall Maiden's powers had brought her was death and suffering.

As grief threatened to overwhelm her once again, the buzzing warble of Jaune's synthetic vocal cords cut through the silence.

"Soooo...I may not be the sharpest when it comes to reading emotions, but I can tell you're upset about something Pyrrha. What's going on?"

She sniffled quietly before wiping her eyes. "Oh, it's nothing...well ok that's a lie, it's so many things I don't even know where to begin Jaune. I'm feeling more than a little overwhelmed right now and don't know what to do."

"Well, I'm still not 100% on what the heck all of this maiden stuff is you have to do every day, but I'd like to help if I can. Standing around protecting you is kinda boring anyway." The non-mechanical part of his mouth curved into a smile.

"Jaune Arc are you saying you don't like being my guardian?" She gasped in mock offense.

"Come on Pyrrha, the toughest thing I've had to deal with so far have been those loonies thinking you're the reincarnation of a god or something. The maidens of-?" He cocked his head sideways.

"The Maidens of Mistral...and yes they are becoming a real problem." She frowned again. She'd have to bring that up with Ozpin tomorrow.

In a way she almost missed the days of the paparazzi and fans that would mob her after a successful Mistral tournament, they were practically tame in comparison to these zealots.

"You know Ironwood won't go for it. They're worried something will go wrong during a zone excursion! You're one of a kind and-"

"-And if something goes wrong, I'll have big strong Pyrrha Nikos with me to help me out." He gently squeezed her hand in return. "You worry almost as much as ol' Ironwood sometimes."

"Oh stop you!" She swatted his massive duststeel chestplate with a dull thud. Still, she couldn't help but smile.

She had tried all of her life to pull back from the fame and attention of being a Mistrali Tournament champion. For the most part, she had succeeded.

But now, the mantle of the Fall Maiden had once again pulled her back into that uncomfortable limelight.

Yet despite all the fame, despite all of the new responsibilities she had to perform, Jaune still hadn't forgotten who was behind the title.

It was how she managed to get through each day. She knew that regardless of whatever a Maiden was called to do, Jaune would be there to remember that Pyrrha Nikos still existed.

And she loved him all the more for it.

"Still, I'm glad we finally have some alone time together. Do you know what today is?"

She blinked. Frantically searching through her memory she tried to recall what today was supposed to signify. She almost reached for her scroll to call Ozpin when Jaune started chuckling.

"Judging by the panicked look on your face, I take it you don't remember..."

"Jaune I'm so sorry I-"

He held up his mechanical hand to quiet her. "Don't worry about it, if anyone has a right to forget something, you do."

"O-ok...so what makes today so special?" She was actually curious. The fact that Jaune had remembered something she hadn't was an event unto itself.

"This...is probably going to sound corny as hell but...today's the 6 month anniversary since the school dance. You know the one-"

"I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that sight of you in that dress Jaune." She recalled with a watery giggle.

"Yeah my cross dressing days are probably over. Still, I wanted to do something to commemorate the event, especially after what's happened lately..."

"Jaune...I-" She began but Jaune continued over her. He seemed to be trying to keep talking before he lost his courage.

"It took me so long to realize what that night meant to me Pyrrha. I'm the world's biggest blockhead, even before I got these upgrades." He tapped his helmet. "But I should have realized it sooner."

"You had faith in me when no one else did. You made me realize what it means when someone genuinely cares for you, and I was too damn stupid to notice it then, but I hope to make up for that now."

He pulled a pair of necklaces from a hidden compartment on his thigh. As the opening sealed with another quiet hiss, he held them up to the moonlight.

A pair of miniature metallic shields hung from each silver chain. Each disc resembled their shields they had once fought with. A golden Akouo and the white shield-sheath of Crocea Mors.

"I-I had them made from what we managed to recover from Crocea Mors. Ancient Ceramite is a pain in the butt to work with let me tell you..." He stopped and coughed.

"Jaune! They're beautiful!" The tears she had held back finally burst through and fell freely. With a delicacy belying his appearance, he clasped the necklace around Pyrrha's neck.

"Anyway...I had these made for us. We're each other's shields you know? We'll always have each other's backs. From now until forever, I'll never leave your side...well at least until bathroom breaks or something..."

"Oh Jaune! Thank you! Thank you so much! You- Oh come here before I make a bigger mess of myself!" She wrapped her arms around her Iron Knight.

Even through the multiple layers of metal and plastic, she could feel it. His heart still beat as strong as ever. His love for her, growing only stronger in the days since that dance.

Were she able, she would stretch this moment into eternity, content to bathe in the sheer bliss she felt at this moment for as long as she could.

"I'll always be your Guardian Pyrrha"

"And I will be yours Jaune."


	2. Chapter 2

**Good morning folks!**

 **With Dishwasher finally finishing my commission piece to followup his amazing Goddess Piece, I figured I'd crank out a part 2 to this quick story. I hammered it out in the span of a few hours so it's a bit rougher than I would like, but i feel it captures the essence of what the pic shows.**

 **If you want to take a gander at it, check out Dishwasher1910 on deviant art and search for Future Jaune (It should be right on the front page)**

 **Once again, thanks for reading and hope you enjoy. Feedback, as always is appreciated.**

 ***WARNING***

 ***WARNING***

 ***WARNING***

 ***WARNING***

 ***WARNING***

 ***HARDWARE FAILURE DETECTED***

 ***CRITICAL OPERATING SYSTEM FAILURE DETECTED***

 ***CRASH MEMORY DUMP INITIATED...COMPLETE***

 ***INITIATING EMERGENCY SYSTEM RESET***

 ***ATLAS/OS REBOOT INITIATED***

 ***LOADING EMERGENCY COMMAND FILES***

 ***ATTEMPTING TO LOCATE ATLAS COMMAND NODE...***

 **...**

 **...**

 **...**

 ***COMMAND NODE NOT FOUND. LOCAL REBOOT INITIATED***

 ***SYSTEM DIRECTIVE FILES LOCATED***

 ***SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FILES LOCATED***

 ***BEGIN LOADING PROCESS***

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\WEAPONS...ONLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\OPTICS...OFFLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\SYSTEM...ONLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\LIFE SUPPORT...ONLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\FIRST-AID SYSTEMS...OFFLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\GRIMM-EYE...OFFLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\HYDRAULICS...ONLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\POWER MANAGEMENT...ONLINE**

 **\CORE\GUARDIAN\NEURAL INTERFACE...OFFLINE**

 ***LOAD AI HELPER SYSTEM C.O.I.N. ?***

 ***LOADING AI HELPER. DIRECTIVE OVERRIDE, NO OPERATOR INPUT RECEIVED***

 ***WARNING! AI INITIALIZATION FAILURE***

 ***GUARDIAN NOT UNDER ATLAS CONTROL***

 ***ATTEMPTING TO INITIATE LOCAL RUN OF PRIME DIRECTIVES***

 ***SENSOR ARRAY OFFLINE***

 ***INITIATING ENVIRONMENT SCAN***

Smoke.

Fire.

Dust.

Thermal and olfactory sensors began cataloging inputs first, well before his optical systems and remaining eye managed to catch up. For a brief moment he wondered if his organic eye had been damaged.

Would that mean yet another body part he'd have to replace? So much of him was gone...replaced by steel and plastic. It troubled him in a distant sort of way, something to occupy his mind during nights far more peaceful than this one had become.

He set the idle thought aside as he tested his limbs while his system ran through diagnostics. The endless stream of data scrolling across his vision told him just how bad things were, but the throbbing pain in his remaining squishy parts told him that well enough without the digital confirmation. Trying to recall what had happened only amplified the pain, his skull revolting against being called into service so quickly. Maybe his digital recorder? No...visor was smashed too. He thumbed the release only to see it get stuck halfway open.

 ***WARNING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY DATA BANKS OFFLINE***

 ***ATTEMPTING DATA RECOVERY PLEASE STAND BY...***

 ***OPTICS SUITE COMPROMISED STANDARD/TELESCOPIC VIEW ONLY***

"Wonderful..." He muttered quietly.

He pulled the visor sides apart to view the hell his world had become. Thick black smoke and fallen debris obscured most of his vision both augmented and otherwise. He could feel the scrubbers in his lungs struggling to remove the burning ash that he inhaled with each breath.

What the hell happened here? He had been at the Amity Colosseum. Pyrrha had been next to him and then...an explosion? He recalled a bright flash...His signal processors had overloaded and then a shockwave knocked him unconscious. He didn't even know he could be knocked unconscious, at least not since he had been...upgraded. The pain in his head was worse now. His automated medical suite didn't appear to be doing anything, probably also knocked off-line. Yanking open an access panel on his torso plate he performed the manual override and felt the pleasant numbing sensation of narcotics flowing through the parts that still benefited from such pleasures.

"At least drugs still work..." The same couldn't be said of the rest of him sadly. His servos whined in protest as he pushed himself to his feet and drew his sword. Sparks flew from his shield arm as it unfolded and locked into place.

 ***WARNING! MAJOR HYDRAULIC PRESSURE LOSS DETECTED***

 ***SYSTEM PERFORMANCE BELOW NOMINAL THRESHOLD***

 ***REPORT TO ATLAS SERVICE ENGINEER IMMEDIATELY***

Time to go to work then...

 ***INITIATING PRIMARY DIRECTIVES***

 ***ENGAGE DIRECTIVE OVERRIDES***

 **1\. PROTECT PYRRHA NIKOS.**

 **2\. PROTECT BEACON CAMPUS AND FACILITIES.**

 **3\. COMPLY WITH ALL ORDERS FROM ATLAS OFFICERS AND PERSONNEL.**

Now where was Pyrrha? Panic started edging into his consciousness as he looked around the wreckage of what once had been the Colosseum. She had been right next to him, watching over the final match of the Vytal Tournament. Wanted to make a show of support for peace and prosperity or something. He hadn't liked it. Too many people and too many avenues to approach her private box. 'A security nightmare' he had said to her the night before.

 _We have the best audio video equipment in Vale right here Pyrrha! Why don't you just watch from the couch?_

He remembered the touch even now, the gentle caress of his cheek as she had drawn closer to him, the only one left in this world who still did so.

 _Because Jaune...I'm not just Pyrrha Nikos to the rest of Vale. While you keep the memory of who I am alive, to everyone else I am the Fall Maiden. I represent the Peace and Recovery that this world so desperately needs. I must attend to show the continued importance the Vytal Festival. I know it's an annoyance, but it's my duty..._

Before he could even offer another word of protest she had outmaneuvered him again.

 _How about this then? We'll go together. I'll arrange for Atlas to deploy another contingent of HK bots for my booth's security, you won't have to do anything tomorrow. Just think, this will be our first date in nearly forever. Won't that be wonderful?_

"Yeah...it was..." He said to no one in particular. Who could have said no to a deal like that? Getting to tour the festival grounds together was worth it even if he did have to play bodyguard to keep the more exuberant fans and well-wishers from bothering her too much. He could still taste the dust infused cotton candy he had sampled from one of the stalls as he pushed forward, shouldering aside large chunks of debris and thanking whatever Atlas designer had come up with his combat chassis. Despite all the damage, the business ends still seemed to work where they mattered.

Now if only he could just find her, they could get out of here...

 ***COMM LINKS OFFLINE***

 ***TACTICAL DISPLAY OFFLINE***

 ***TACTICAL MAP OFFLINE***

"Of course..." He grunted. No communication and no digital maps. At this point he would have settled for his old scroll he used to carry. If only he could-

A noise. Something was moving over there. Was it human? Goddam optics were still broken. He'd become too dependent on them, letting his natural senses atrophy.

 ***WARNING! LARGE GRIMM PRESENCE DETECTED***

 ***MULTIPLE ALPHA GRADE THREATS PRESENT***

 ***OMEGA GRADE THREAT HAS BEEN DETECTED IN VICINITY OF GUARDIAN UNIT***

 ***ATTEMPTING EMERGENCY BROADCAST***

 ***BROADCAST FAILED ATTEMPTING TO REESTABLISH CONNECTION***

 ***DIRECTIVE 1 OVERRIDE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF PYRRHA NIKOS REQUIRED***

"Dammit Pyrrha where are you?!" He screamed, ignoring the earlier warning about nearby Grimm. Since when did threat classifications get that high?

He had no time to think more about it. Before he could take another step, they came, their thundering footfalls registering on what few of his sensors still worked.

Beowulves, Boarbatusks and Deathstalkers...

"Oh my..."

He leapt into the fray, cleaving and stabbing in every direction and ignored the frantic warnings his status monitor splashed across his vision. They kept interfering with his depth perception, the overlay from the visor was out of alignment or something. No time to think about it now however, there were more than enough Grimm to make finding them an easy enough task.

 ***DIRECTIVE 1 OVERRIDE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF PYRRHA NIKOS REQUIRED***

 ***OMEGA GRADE THREAT WITHIN 500 METERS OF GUARDIAN UNIT EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY***

"SHUT UP GODDAMIT!" He screamed at the incessant warning as he cleaved an Ursa in half. "I know what I have to do!"

Yelling at the computer. Not a good sign, too many biosigns in the red zone. Adrenaline regulators going haywire. Couldn't control himself. What was that about the Omega-? Never mind, he just had to find her and everything would be ok. Just had to keep moving. Keep moving forward...He pushed the Ursa corpse aside and then he finally saw what an "Omega" grade threat was.

It was absolutely massive. It gave the comm tower a run for its money as it scaled the walls, gouging deep cuts in the plascrete masonry. It seemed like some twisted mockery of a creature from his childhood fantasy books. A dragon made entirely of nightmares, a head encased that sickeningly white bone armor and some kind of oily black secretions dripping off the body as it continued to climb. What the hell was it...

"It's shitting Grimm..." He suddenly realized. The dragon was making more Grimm! Ok fuck that, no way was he going to fight that without at least 3 capital ships worth of backup and even then the odds were 6-5 and pick em.

She had to be here; she had to be here somewhere...She would know what to do. She always knew what to do. If she didn't then his programming would. He always had the directives to fall back on. They at least were straightforward enough to follow. Didn't have to think to hard or question them really, made thinking-

 _-"You don't have to follow those orders so literally Jaune. You're not a machine." Again that look of concern, not worry or panic but still there. Pressing on him again._

 _"I know Pyrrha, it's just hard sometimes, they sort of, jump in my head so quickly without even thinking about it. Sometime when fighting Grimm I don't even know if it's really me at the wheel you know?"_

 _A touch._

 _A hug._

 _A tender kiss._

 _"You've always done your best to remember who I really am Jaune. You've kept my memory alive, even after all that's happened. I promise I won't let you forget who you really are either. You are Jaune Arc."_

 _A smile. The one she reserved only for him. The one he'd never ever forget, no matter how much metal replaced his original body._

 _"And you are my guardian."_

 ***DIRECTIVE 1 OVERRIDE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF PYRRHA NIKOS REQUIRED***

"I know, I know, I'm looking for her!" He nearly screamed as the announcement splashed across his vision. He shook his head. Why now? Where had that come from? And why couldn't his sensors come back online faster? Having to rely on unaugmented vision, he might as well have been blind trying to navigate through all the debris and smoke.

 ***DIRECTIVE 1 OVERRIDE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF PYRRHA NIKOS REQUIRED***

 ***\CORE\GUARDIAN\OPTICS...** **ONLINE***

 ***SENSOR SUITE REBOOT COMPLETE***

 ***TACTICAL DISPLAY ONLINE***

"Finally! Now we're getting somewhere!" He jammed the manual override on the side of his helmet to begin a full sensor sweep of the area. If he was lucky he could extract her and call on airstrike on this damn thing before-

 ***UNABLE TO LOCATE PYRRHA NIKOS. LIFE SIGNS NOT FOUND***

That couldn't be right. He tried again, setting the scanner for maximum sensitivity. His eye stung with the increased power throughput as it once again scanned the surrounding area for the maiden's energy signature.

 ***UNABLE TO LOCATE PYRRHA NIKOS. LIFE SIGNS NOT FOUND***

He blinked. The panic, held fast at the edge of his mind was breaking through his mental bulwarks. She had been right next to him before the explosion, she couldn't have gone that far away. He started pulling aside rocks and debris, chunks of plascrete. Anything really...maybe she had been buried under something? Or his sensors were still going haywire! That had to be it, she would be around here for sure, just had to look harder.

Finally spotting a shredded portion of the skybox they had been in, he ran towards it, heedless of his safety as he advanced from cover. Pulling aside another chunk of debris it was a few seconds before he realized the world as he had come to know it, had ended.

It stood out amidst the wreckage. He didn't even need his augmented vision to pick it out, damaged as it was. A glint of polished bronze. Delicate woven links.

"Pyrrha..."

 ***DIRECTIVE 1 OVERRIDE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF PYRRHA NIKOS REQUIRED***

 ***UNABLE TO LOCATE PYRRHA NIKOS. LIFE SIGNS NOT FOUND***

Her headband lay there in a scorched crater, glinting dully in the gloom of the night, barely reflecting the glow of nearby fires. The entirety of Pyrrha Nikos had been reduced to a stain on the ground and a chunk of metal.

 ***DIRECTIVE 1 OVERRIDE IMMEDIATE EVACUATION OF PYR-***

A screech of abused metal and a jerk of his arm tore the helmet from his head. The tension in his servos released, letting the massive bulk of his armor slam down into the charred ground.

She was gone. The one person who had given him purpose in life, who made it bearable after all that had happened to him was gone from this world. He gently pulled the crown from the wreckage, still maintain its form despite the obvious abuse it had endured. This was all that was left of her. This and his memories. Those he clung to as desperately as the crown in front of him. But for how long? Would Atlas let him keep them? Would they make him forget?

 _"I'll always be your Guardian Pyrrha."_

 _"And I will be yours Jaune."_

His eyes opened.

Fuck the directives.

Fuck Atlas.

And Fuck the Grimm.

Pyrrha was gone. The one thing tethering the last bit of his humanity to this world and it had been cut away. Never to return. So where did that leave him then? He had failed to protect her. He had failed to protect Beacon. What was the point of doing anything else? Would he be "deactivated"? Tossed aside like the hundreds of HK bots that littered the landscape around him? What about Ruby and the others? Who would protect them? Who would be their guardian? He didn't know. He felt he should, they were a part of his life, or had been. With how things were going...

He shook his head. With a creak of abused servos he tucked the headpiece into his storage compartment.

It deserved a better resting place. Something worthy to remember the person who wore it. Who it represented.

He had failed Pyrrha. He had failed Beacon. But maybe, just maybe, he could still make up for it. Protect Ruby, the rest of Vale maybe, he wondered as he picked up his sword. Whatever happened, he'd have to face it, one way or the other. He'd persevere. That's what Arcs do right? The motto had been drilled into him as soon as he had learned to read and write.

An Arc Endures.

And that is what he would do.


	3. Chapter 3 Part 1

***Dusts off the cover* Uh Hey folks, long time no writey huh? No excuses really for how long it's taken to get this up, I should have gotten it done when Dishwasher made my latest commission. Still, I'm glad i managed to tough it out and get it done. For the full tonal effect I strongly encourage you to see the three pics on Dishwasher's DA or Tumblr pages, I can't link them here directly but they're all part of Dish's "Future" series, Starting with "Goddess", then"Jaune Arc" and finally "Grim". Each pic corresponds with each chapter for maximum effect. Either way, thank you for your eternal patience and feedback and hope you enjoy! This is a massive final chapter to this originally "short" fic, so I've split it up into parts for easier reading. Thank you as alway for the feedback.**

Memories come in many forms for different people. For some, the sight of a familiar landmark or the sound of a dust barge winding its way across the bay is enough to recall even the most ancient of events. The taste of a wonderful meal, an ancient holovid playing on through worn out speakers work for others. For Ruby Rose, it was scents. Wildflowers blooming spectacularly in spring...that would always be the isle of Patch to her. Just the passing scent of them in a local market would always make her think of her childhood home and her father. The pungent smell of ocean, bilgewater, and rotting fish on the other hand, would forever mark the docks of Mistrali harbors in her mind, and also contribute to her eventual dislike of seafood. Then there was the cloyingly sweet smell of Red Maple and Dustwood trees, especially intense in the summertime, that would bring her back to her first day at Beacon, stepping off the airship with Yang and starting her new life.

Or at least, that was the memory of Beacon she preferred to hold onto nowadays. The airship lurched roughly, interrupting her reverie as it navigated the roiled air near their destination.

"Touchdown in five Ruby, hang on a bit, gotta take a bit of a roundabout go at it." The voice crackled in her earpiece.

"Understood, take your time." She clicked off the mic and leaned back in the crash seat, letting the sounds and vibrations of the old dropship wash over her as she closed her eyes and thought of happier memories. There likely wouldn't be any new ones made on this trip. As her head rested against the cushioned headpiece, the dim interior of the drop bay suddenly flared in a dull red glow, warning its sole occupant that landing was imminent and to prepare for combat. The designers of this craft had always assumed it would be used for nothing more than hostile insertions, so normal lighting hadn't even been considered for its design. It was probably something she could jury-rig together easily enough she pondered, listening to the engines' whine increase as they transitioned to landing mode. Just another thing added to an endless list of projects she never had the time to work on nowadays. The craft tilted, then she felt the almost imperceptible rotation as it was brought in for a pillow soft landing on the pad. Ruby smiled to herself. However many faults she had, Ruby couldn't deny that the many years of driving Bumblebee had made one hell of a good Bullhead pilot out of her sister, and she would trust no one else when it came to combat insertions.

The engines hadn't even started spooling down before the door to the cockpit slid open.

"Ah man, it's SO much nicer getting to use a proper landing spot for once. And no Nevermores or haywiire AA batteries on top of it? Ahhh, shame they can't all be this easy right?" Yang commented as she stretched her arms. Ruby cocked her head slightly towards Yang's prosthetic.

"Your primary servos are wearing out Sis. I can hear them whining from over here."

"You're kidding. I can't hear-!" She flexed her prosthetic experimentally, holding it close to her ear as she did so. The faintest whine of gears could be heard, but only barely. Yang looked at her younger sister and blinked in surprise. "How did...?" She shook her head. "Never mind, whatever. We'll take a look at it when we land back at the hunter guild alright?" She popped open a dented locker and retrieved Ember Celica, affixing them to her wrists while looking forlornly at the faded and chipped paint that covered the exterior armor shell.

"You know you can simply repaint them right? What's the big deal? I'm sure you can find-"

"It's not the same Ruby!" Yang replied, an edge on her voice. "They just-they don't make that shade of yellow any more ok? It just wouldn't be the same to me." She brushed past Ruby and punched the ramp controls, saying nothing further on the issue. A loud whine and hiss of pneumatics filled the cargo area as the drop-ramp slowly opened, allowing a blast of cold air through the opening and carrying with it the memories of Beacon Ruby had long wished she had forgotten.

Already her nose picked up the acrid smell of ash from countless fires that had burned across campus, scouring building and body alike. The ever present dust from crushed concrete buildings came along with it. She hated it. One mission in a place like this meant hours of cleaning every nook and cranny of Crescent Rose to get rid of it all, and several more to stop thinking about the mission itself. As the ramp continued its slow descent, the remnants of Ruby's first home away from home slid into view.

The intervening years had not been kind to the once grand Beacon Academy. First the attack by Cinder's forces, which had only been pushed back at the last minute with Pyrrha's maiden powers and then the more serious bombing of the Vytal Arena which had crash landed into the center of campus. The death and destruction was like ambrosia to the Grimm and they took the chance to re-invade in even greater numbers than before. And with no Fall maiden to protect them in the aftermath, even more perished in the chaos. This charnal house was responsible for the loss of so many...and at the same time the catalyst which awoke the mysterious power hidden behind Ruby's eyes. To this day, she still didn't really know what exactly it was, only that it was universally lethal to Grimm when it burst forth from her in an uncontrollable torrent.

Ruby frowned. _Uncontrollable._ It was that aspect she didn't really care for if she was being honest with herself. As an experienced huntress, wielding a piece of equipment or dust that you didn't understand often led to just as much danger to you as your intended targets. A fact brutallly driven home again and again in the many missions she had accumulated on her hunter record since the fall of Beacon, many nearly killing her, and all leaving their mark upon her in various ways.

She glanced down at her legs, tracing the line where flesh met ceramic and steel. The sleek prosthetics gleamed in the dull dropship's lights, their hard edges and smooth lines an aesthetically pleasing if painful reminder to never try to take on a Goliath solo ever again.

Her eyes were already prickling, alerting her to the taint that filled the air just as her nose reported the same. That cloyingly foul scent that meant only one thing. Grimm. This far from the center of campus? Was the frozen corpse of that Dragon still there? Why had no one-?

She shook her head and looked forward, eyes scanning left and right for danger. Yang looked toward her.

"Trouble?" She murmured quietly. "Something headed our way?"

Ruby closed her eyes. "No...it's more like...like a general feeling." She mumbled. "Can't really say for sure, just be ready for anything."

Yang grinned. "You know it sis." Her eyes widened as she caught the sight of a figure rapidly advancing along a narrow dirt path towards them. "Well shit...things must really be bad if she's coming to meet us in person."

Ruby's eyes followed Yang's outstretched finger as they both made their way down the ramp. A cloaked figure was jogging towards them. With a sharp gust of wind, the hood was blown back revealing a tousel of silver blond hair and thin spectacles that glinted in the early morning sunlight. Professor Goodwitch approached the dropship, her billowing cloak revealing an inhumanly clean and pressed blouse and combat skirt. The contrast to the surrounding decay and destruction almost made the two sisters burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all. Even after all this time, Professor Goodwitch's ironclad discipline would not even allow the mundane bits of dirt to ever sully her clothes.

"You're late." She announced before Ruby had a chance to open her mouth.

Yang's eyes flickered red in annoyance as she cocked an eyebrow. She wasn't accustomed to anyone criticizing her piloting skills. "Getting here wasn't exactly easy you know. Passing through 4 different quarantine zones doesn't exactly make for a fast trip. Besides we got here didn't we?"

"It's good to see you professor!" Ruby quickly put in before Goodwitch could respond. It had been an early start for both of them, and the last thing she wanted was an argument in the middle of a warzone. "What's going on? Your message requested us but didn't say what we're up against."

The faintest hint of a smile passed on the edge of Goodwitch's lips before it was brutally suppressed by her severe expression. "I'll explain on the way Ms. Rose, this way please." Turning, she rapidly marched away from them. "It's good to see you as well. I wish we were meeting under better circumstances."

Goodwitch had already put several paces between them before they realized she was already moving and scrambled catch up to her. Goodwitch glanced towards Ruby as they navigated the narrow dirt path amongst the wrecked chunks of plascrete.

"I'm sorry for the vague nature of the contract request, but it was necessary for security reasons. Do you girls know what we do out here since Beacon fell?"

Yang blinked in surprise at the rather obvious question then looked over to Ruby who shrugged in reply. "Aren't you, like...cleaning up this place? Clearing out the Grimm right? Make it usable as a school again or something?"

"That's our ultimate goal yes." Goodwitch replied, her gaze resuming its scan of the terrain in front of her. "The loss of Beacon Academy has made training hunters in this area nearly impossible. Most simply can't afford the money or the risk to try and go to another academy in the other kingdoms, and that's even if they can get past the borders with the tighter security now in place since the...incident." She used her crop to levitate a large chunk of concrete out of the way, widening their path.

"In the immediate sense however, there has been intense unwanted interest in the area. On a level we haven't yet seen before." She scowled.

"Why would anyone outside of Vale's government care about this place?" Ruby asked in surprise. "So it's got a ton of Grimm, and well ok yeah I can kinda see how all the buildings and dust supplies here would be worth a lot but-"

"It's not just the kingdom that has their sights on this place Ruby Rose." Goodwitch cut across her. She ducked her head as the path wound its way under a collapsed building. "The Grimm are already a big enough problem without them acting up-" A flick of her crop re-sat a wooden beam supporting the tunnel that had shifted out of place. "-but on top of that, we have scavengers and smugglers trying to find dust caches or strip tech here for spare parts or schematics. We've even had what I think was an Atlas special ops team sighted near the remains of the Comm Tower, but they left before we could investigate them further. Then there's the researchers from other kingdoms. They all claim that there's something odd about this place now, about the Grimm, about the trees, and so forth and so on." She snorted in disgust. "And somehow I have to keep all of these demands under control while we try to rebuild." She sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose under her spectacles.

For the first time since arriving here, Ruby finally got a chance to apply a critical eye to her former Professor. For all of Goodwitch's legendary discipline and power, chinks were starting to appear in her perfect armor. Ruby couldn't even begin to comprehend the demands this place placed upon her former professor, but what Ruby could see of her showed it plainly enough. Even her powerful witchcraft could not hide the graying of her hair or the shadowy bags forming under her eyes.

"I called you two here because a situation has developed that I can't quite explain. Tell me-" She looked over her shoulder as they approached what appeared to be a large encampment, complete with portable prefab housing and tents. "-have you noticed anything odd about the surrounding ruins during our walk over here?"

Ruby looked around at their surroundings as they continued to walk, the only sound punctuating the breeze that wound its way through the wreckage was the click-clack of Goodwitch's combat heels echoing loudly on the cracked pathway. Ruby half had a mind to ask her old professor if she had any other footwear, it seemed so damn loud in these quiet ruins, nearly every Grimm would hear them and-

Ruby blinked.

It was...quiet. Too quiet. Beacon was supposed to be completely overrun with an endless swarm of Grimm wasn't it? At least that's what the hunter boards warned them in triplicate upon accepting the contract. The word amongst the hunter community was that you only went to the Beacon Ruins if you were looking for a suicide gig or you wanted to rapidly build credibility in the competitive hunter market. It took a semi-permanent rotation of hunters from around Remnant keeping a constant, if barely tenable quarantine on the area surrounding the campus in order to keep the rest of the Grimm from spreading beyond the kingdoms' control. Many theorized the frozen corpse of that Dragon was the reason behind the intense saturation of Grimm, but even that was hotly debated, as no one had yet been able to approach it without being set upon by hordes of voracious Grimm surrounding the tower. It remained there, frozen and fused to the crumbled remains of the Comm tower, its flesh crackling and oozing a vile sludge that seemed to draw Grimm to it in a slow but ceaseless torrent. No one could understand where it had come from or how it kept summoning more Grimm. For now, the most that could be done was set up forward observation posts several thousand feet away and try to analyze things as best as they could. Ruby on the other hand would have been glad to never see that monster again, recalling the horrid night it nearly swallowed her...and activated her powers for the first time.

"Where are all the Grimm?" Yang answered for Ruby. "I haven't even seen a Creep yet."

They found themselves in the midst of the camp. Goodwitch pulled open a flap to a larger tent than the surrounding ones and beckoned them inside. Once both had passed through, she flicked her crop at the entrance, binding the flap to the ground and sealing it shut. The sisters shared a look but said nothing else as Goodwitch moved them to a large map table covered in markings, icons, and notes.

"Well noted Ms. Xiao Long." She pointed to large red dot in the center of the map. Surrounding it was a small forest of bright red push pins, forming a misshapen circle around it. "This is where the Dragon's Corpse was located on the Comm tower. The rest of the groups of pins represent other large clusters of Grimm activity that were scattered around the remains of the campus."

"I'm noticing a past tense here." Yang observed quietly.

Goodwitch looked up. "Yes. All of these map markers are about 2 weeks old." She pulled over a small laptop. "Here, it's better if I show you this first." Typing quickly into the computer, she pulled up several files, broadcasting them onto the wall of the tent through the built in projector. "2 weeks ago, one of our forward observation posts recorded this at about 3AM local time."

The video quality was terrible, especially being shot so late in the night, but it didn't take much visual fidelity to make out the seething mass of Grimm milling about the base of the comm tower. Thousands of glowing red eyes and jutting shapes of bone and spine all coalesced into some hideous nightmarish blob that came through, even with the grainy picture. Ruby blinked several times, trying to suppress the prickling sensation returning to her eyes before either of the others noticed. Goodwitch continued.

"This is pretty much a standard concentration of Grimm for this area. You can see the base of the comm tower behind the large collection of Grimm. The Grimm up until this point, didn't seem to follow much of a pattern. They'd gather and mill about near the base, closest to the Dragon corpse, and then move off with other clusters as you saw on the map." She accelerated the speed of the video, showing a slow shift in the black tide as more Grimm came and went. "At first we theorized that perhaps the Grimm were returning to somehow feed off the corpse of the Dragon. Hideous as that sounds, it was the only thing we could come up with for why the mass of Grimm near the corpse never really contracted or expanded, but remained relatively constant." She slowed the video back to normal speed. "This pattern has more or less continued since a few weeks after the initial conflict here...up until that night." She pointed to screen. "Our scouts observed what appeared to be a single Atlas AK-200 bot or something similar, walk into that pile of Grimm and enter the tower."

The two sisters' mouths dropped open as they watched a tall metallic figure stumble erratically through the sea of Grimm, dragging some large bundle, while the surrounding Grimm spared not even a look in its direction. In a matter of seconds, the figure disappeared from sight as it entered the tower.

"Play it again please." Ruby blurted out. Goodwitch complied. "Can you slow the video speed down and magnify it at all?"

"This unfortunately is the maximum magnification we could get out of the video Ms. Rose. The equipment we have out here isn't that good." Goodwitch replied tiredly. "But I can definitely play it at a slower speed, certainly."

Ruby re-watched the segment several times further, each time nearly pressing her nose to the screen on the tent's wall, her eyes locked open on the grainy recording of the robot.

"Ok sis come on, spit it out, what do you see?" Yang broke the silence.

"I just thought I-never mind." Ruby finished quickly. "Professor, I'm guessing you didn't ask us to come out here because of a random AK bot bypassing a bunch of Grimm." She turned to the professor, shaking her head slightly to Yang's questioning look.

"No...that's not why I called you out here..." Goodwitch began slowly, looking back and forth between Ruby and the image on the screen before readjusting her glasses and continuing. "Immediately following this incident, I increased the number of observation posts and recon teams around the tower. Further attempts to approach the tower either by drone or by hunter were rebuffed by surges of violent Grimm." She queued several other videos, many from aerial drones that lasted for several seconds before their feeds were terminated by some unknown source.

"In the end, all we were able to do was to increase observation on the tower, trying to see if we were able to catch sight of that robot again." Goodwitch grumped.

"You're doing that past-tense thing again Professor." Yang cut in.

"Yes well..." Goodwitch adjusted her spectacles and cued another video. "Three days after we sighted the robot... _this_ happened." The video showed the tower from a more frontal angle, focusing on the upper sections where the dragon was fused to the superstructure. Periodically the video would pan to the mass of Grimm below, where it undulated and flowed like some perverted ocean. After several seconds of back and forth panning by the camera, a glowing light illuminated the edge of the frame, causing whomever was manning the camera to snap towards the source.

The source turned out to be the Dragon's corpse. Its skin began to pulse and bubble, and cracks of light rippled through the outer layer of the carapace. Each crack was nearly as bright as the sun, and the camera's auto-filtering struggled to keep up with the increasing output, when finally a massive pulse of light overwhelmed both the camera and its operator as the picture scrambled and rotated erratically before coming to rest facing the ground of what appeared to be a simple wooden hut. Feet moved to and fro on the screen for several seconds before the operator found the camera and brought it back up to the viewing slits, focusing on the tower.

The scene was pure bedlam. A gaping hole in the side of tower remained where the Dragon's corpse had been. The camera managed to catch the remains of broken masonry and Dragon raining down on the mass of Grimm at the base. The Grimm hadn't taken too kindly to the sudden disruption in their routines and flew into a frenzy, running and attacking everything in sight. Buildings, dirt, and even fellow Grimm fell to the onslaught. It seemed the operator thought it was unsafe to observe the situation further as the video pulled back from the viewing slit and terminated shortly afterwards.

The tent was silent for several seconds. The two sisters stared mutely at the blank screen then at each other. After neither seemed able to speak, Goodwitch took over for them. "What you just witnessed hasn't been reported to anyone outside of this kingdom, at least not officially. I've done my best to put a lid on things, but I can't guarantee that it hasn't leaked out in some capacity."

"What...happened though?" Ruby stammered. "Did that Dragon explode or something?"

"More or less." Goodwitch provided. We detected a massive energy surge emanating from _within_ the Dragon's corpse. As the video showed, the resulting explosion appears to have destroyed the remnants of the Dragon itself, taken out a chunk of the comm tower along with nearly all of our operational aerial drones, sent the Grimm into a frenzy, and caused them to attack everything and everyone on sight. We've had to abandon the majority of our observation posts. At least at first anyway."

"At first?" Yang cocked her head.

"Yes. Several days after the explosion, the Grimm's behavior changed yet again. This time...well they're frankly behaving quite unlike anything I've ever seen as a huntress." She pulled up several aerial shots taken from a very high altitude of the center of campus.

"What the-? Are the Grimm-?" Yang stuttered.

"So it appears." Goodwitch finished for her. "They seem to be forming ranks around the tower itself. More than that, they appear to be forming _ordered_ ranks of Grimm. The larger, more powerful Grimm are at the front, while the progressively smaller species are forming lines behind them."

Ruby stared at the pictures, trying to count the rings and rings of Grimm formed up around the tower. Already she counted at least 10 Goliaths, which was more than she had ever seen in one place since her first mission into Mountain Glen all those years ago. A thin ring of Deathstalkers and King Taijitus were right behind them, then at least several hundred Alphas, followed by countless Beowulves and Boarbatusks. All lined up and...

"Are they _kneeling?!"_ Yang nearly shouted. "I gotta be looking at wrong, but... the Goliaths, their heads...they're _bowing_ to the tower!" Yang now pressed her face to the screen, trying to confirm what her mind screamed wasn't possible.

"Professor what's going on?!" Ruby pleaded pointing towards the screen. "Why are they doing this?"

Goodwitch stared at the screen for a few seconds before replying with a sigh. "I wish I knew for certain Miss Rose. At best I can make an educated guess."

"We'll take it at this point!" Yang replied. "I've never seen Grimm do shit like this."

"Haven't you?" Yang looked back in confusion. "Grimm have always established themselves into hierarchies. Usually an Alpha or Goliath will lead a pack of Grimm that respond to it during combat encounters and-"

"This is different!" Ruby exclaimed. "Grimm don't line up like this, and they certainly don't bow down to anyone!"

"True, however my theory is that is what is precisely what is going on there." Goodwitch responded calmly.

"Come again?" Yang joined her sister at the map table.

"What I mean is, prior to the Dragon exploding, the Grimm remained around it, congregating and more or less staying within a few minutes march of the carcass in a relatively disorganized mob. At first I thought they were feeding on it somehow, or protecting it, but now with it gone and the Grimm not dispersing, I can only conclude that they thought the Dragon was their Alpha, even in its deceased state."

"Then why are they sticking around if the Dragon's gone?" Yang mimicked Ruby in pointing to the screen as well.

It was a few seconds before Goodwitch responded. When she spoke, her words were measured, almost hesitant in their delivery. "I think...that the Grimm feel there is something even more powerful than the Dragon inside there, and they are recognizing it as their new master."

The words hung in the air like a foul mist. Ruby's eyes started prickling again with greater intensity than they had in months.

"S-Something worse than the Dragon? And they're following-?" Yang stammered herself into silence.

"As terrifying as the thought is, yes Ms. Xiao Long, I believe there's something in the ruins of the comm tower, and the Grimm are now beholden to it. That is why I requested the both of you for this contract. I want the two of you to get as close as you can to this tower, and if possible, enter and find out what's inside."

"Y-You're kidding." Yang nearly sputtered. "Didn't you say all the Grimm attack everything that gets close? We're just two huntresses! This is a friggin' suicide mission!" She clenched her fists as her eyes flew into a fiery tempest.

Goodwitch remained unperturbed by the outburst. "I wouldn't have called you girls if I didn't think it was possible. I may be regarded as cold by some, or a 'bitch' by others too cowardly to say it in my presence, but I am not without concern for those under me." She turned to Ruby. "I called you both, mainly because you are one of the few people I can trust implicitly, and are...intimately familiar with this situation."

"You're talking about my Silver Eyes then?" Ruby asked quietly.

"Yes I am. Your powers froze that dragon in place in the first place and Professor Ozpin spoke of how it is one of the few things-"

"That's too much!" Yang cut her off. "Ruby can't even control it all that well, and you're asking us to wade into a legion of Grimm to chase down something that may not even be there! This is stupid Professor, I thought you knew better than this! I thought Ozpin would have-!"

"I'm sure you think you know what Professor Ozpin would have wanted to do, but the fact remains that-"

"OH don't you dare start that patronizing bullshit with me you-!"

"I'll do it." Ruby interjected, almost too quietly to hear.

"What?!" Yang and Goodwitch's heads snapped towards her. "Ruby, what the hell?!"

"I said I'll do it Yang!" Her voice rose more forcefully. "I wanna know what's going on in there. You heard the Professor! If something is inside there that can control Grimm like this, we need to know what it is! What if it's used against us!? Or goes haywire, or...or something! We can't just leave it there!"

"Ruby this is crazy! We may be pretty damn good, but we can't take on this many! It's suicide!"

"Excuse me but-" Goodwitch tried to interject. Yang shot her a venomous look.

"You stay out of this! I oughtta deck those glasses right off that perfect face of yours!" She growled.

"No I won't Miss Xiao Long." Goodwitch stepped forward, her aura pressing upon Yang's with palpable force. "As I said earlier, I am not one to send my people on suicide missions. I said to enter the tower _if possible._ All I am asking you to do right now, is to simply approach the tower as far as you feel safe to do so and try to do some close up reconnaissance. If the danger becomes too great, if there does not appear to be a path that you can safely enter the building, then retreat as quickly and safely as possible and I'll consider the contract fully satisfied." Her icy glare matched Yang's fire as the two stared down each other.

"What's the catch?" Yang grunted.

"No catch." Goodwitch replied crisply. "You two are essentially my last trump card before we have to make this situation fully public. Given the massive concentration of Grimm here, if we can't figure out what is doing this or what is even inside of the tower, well...we'll have to resort to other measures."

"That sounds ominous..." Yang's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Yes. Quite." Goodwitch adjusted her glasses again. "I won't mince words here ladies. The situation at this point is dire. Vale and the other kingdoms will see those aerial shots of the Grimm, how they appear to be ordering themselves into organized units, and they will soil their collective undergarments, pardon the phrasing." She gestured hopelessly to the screen.

"When political figures become afraid they often react precipitously. Most likely they will take one look at those shots and unanimously declare Beacon a lost cause. They will probably order an aerial or artillery bombardment of Beacon campus to deal with the problem."

"Bomb Beacon Campus? That's crazy! That'll never work! Don't they know that Grimm can live and dig underground?!" Yang pointed to the map with an agitated gesture. "I know Beacon has a bunch of basements, who the hell knows what's down there! What? They expecting the bombs to just seal things up all nice and tidy like?"

Goodwitch sighed. "That will most likely be their point of view, yes. The only reason they haven't done so sooner was the remote hope that Beacon and its facilities could somehow be salvaged for later use, thus they pledged the constant hunter presence this place demanded to fuel that hope." Goodwitch looked down at the map and its small forest of red push-pins. "With this many Grimm...no, they'll cut their losses and re-purpose the hunters this place required elsewhere. I've already heard of them grumbling about this over our last several reports I've had with them, and I doubt they'll waste any time effecting the orders once the bombardment is complete."

"So that's it then?" Ruby looked up. "Just destroy this place and move on? How can they do such a thing? This is Beacon! We all learned to be hunters here, they can't just throw it away like that!" She balled her fists tightly at the thought.

"I agree with you Ms. Rose, but to the people outside of these walls, they will see nothing more than a potential dust-keg waiting to go off. All of the kingdoms are on edge now since the invasion, surely you have noticed this." She tapped the map. "A concentration of Grimm this large presents too great of a risk for Vale to allow within its borders. Worse, other kingdoms may see this as a pretext for invading Vale as they feel it presents such a grave threat to their own safety, that they can't 'entrust' Vale to take care of such a task. And they're partially right. Vale doesn't nearly have the firepower needed to wipe out a concentration of Grimm like this, they would probably have to request help from Atlas, which presents its own set of problems."

"Yeah, Atlas ain't exactly a bed of sunshine and ice-roses these days from what Weiss told us." Yang mused. " I wouldn't want to be an Atlas citizen right now that's for sure."

"Indeed. It's likely this area will become a flashpoint in a larger conflict unless we can do something about it." Goodwitch turned to Ruby. "I'm sorry to have placed such a heavy burden upon your shoulders Ms. Rose. As I said before, I'm not expecting the two of you to enter the building. If it becomes too much, if you feel that your survival is at risk, simply pull back and come back here. I won't think any less of you for it. All I can ask of you two is to at least make a solid attempt."

Ruby would have never believed it had she not witnessed it right then, but for the first time since she had first laid eyes upon Professor Goodwitch, she looked...sad. That right there rattled Ruby in a way she hadn't been in quite some time. Goodwitch always represented that strong, unflappable confidence that a master Huntress was made of. To see such a dejected-no _defeated_ look upon her face was almost too much to accept.

"It's ok Professor..." Ruby began, checking to make sure Crescent Rose was secured to her waist. "...we won't let you down." She turned to Yang. "You with me sis?"

Yang half sighed half shrugged in exasperation. "I still think this is a crazy idea, but like hell I'd let you go out there alone. I've got your back and I'll drag you back here myself if I have to." She jabbed a finger at Goodwitch. "You really owe us for this. I expect a gold-plated contract note when this is all over."

"I assure you it will be nothing less." Goodwitch nodded. "Now then, let's not waste more time. I will escort you to our remaining forward-most observation post. It should allow you to approach with more cover than other spots we've been staked out upon. I cannot guarantee the approach will be anything short of dangerous as we haven't had scouts that far forward in nearly a week since the event. We may encounter resistance."

"Yeah yeah, it's not like we haven't faced Grimm before." Yang checked the internal magazine to Ember Celica before locking it into the firing chamber. "As long as we don't attract that main herd next to the tower we should be ok."

"Alright, let's go!" Ruby piped up excitedly. In spite of the fear lurking in the back of her head, she was just eager to finally be able to get up and _do_ something. There was another thing of course, but she'd wait until she was out of earshot of Professor Goodwitch before she talked to Yang about it. Didn't need to complicate things even further.

"Very well, follow me. I assume you both are all stocked up with ammunition and dust?" She looked the girls over.

"Come on Professor..." Yang admonished. "...we're not newbies fresh out of the Academy you know."

"One can never be too prepared Ms. Xiao Long. We don't always have adequate supplies out here. I have had to send hunters out on rotation while low on dust. Those people often didn't make it back."

"Well that's a cheery thought." Yang replied glumly.

"Indeed. Pray you never have to write a letter to their family explaining why their son or daughter won't be coming home because they ran out of dust. If you feel you are all set to go, then follow me." Goodwitch motioned towards the tent flap.

Yang had no immediate response to the observation other than a shrug. The three huntresses made their way back out of the camp, with Goodwitch stopping several times to confer with other personnel as they went. No further words were exchanged as they made their way towards the observation post which left Ruby and Yang alone with their thoughts. After about half an hour of walking, their path led them to a pile of several large chunks of plywood stacked and arranged on top of each other.

"We're here." Goodwitch announced.

"Wait...what?" Yang looked around.

"Here." Goodwitch walked over to the seemingly haphazard arrangement of plywood boards and pulled on the outermost one, revealing a small but cozy camping setup hidden within the enclosure. Yang whistled in approval.

"This is the furthest outpost we still have operating. I've recalled the hunters that usually operate out of this one, so you'll have free use of the facilities." She motioned towards the Comm tower. "I'll leave the approach to the tower up to you two. The concentration of debris here wreaks havoc with short range communications, but if you want to contact our base and can somehow get a signal with your Scrolls' burst transmitters, our radio frequency is 527.1mhz. Any questions?" She surveyed them with unmasked concern despite the even tone in her voice.

"We'll do our best professor. I'll try to contact you as soon as we find something." Ruby withdrew Crescent rose from her belt and chambered a round from the magazine.

"Yup, we'll be careful, don't worry about it." Yang agreed.

Goodwitch let out a small breath. "Very well. Please be careful ladies, and do try to stay in touch as much as possible. Good luck." And with that she quickly turned away and strode back up the path.


	4. Chapter 3 Part 2

Yang waited until Goodwitch was no longer visible before turning to Ruby. "Alright sis, spit it out."

"What?"

"Don't 'what' me. Why'd you accept this op so quickly? What made you decide to wade into the biggest pile of Grimm we've ever seen?"

"Yang, really I just-"

"Don't give me that!" Yang interrupted. "If this is just about killing Grimm we could have taken any other contract on that board. What is it? Gettin' sentimental about Beacon or something?"

Ruby didn't respond right away. She looked down at Crescent Rose gripped tightly in her hands. She wanted to tell Yang what she had seen, or rather, what she _thought_ she had seen on the video, but gauging her sister's reaction was a crapshoot. Telling her the truth had equal chances of calming her down as enraging her.

"Weeellll? I can already tell you want to say something, you know my big sister intuition always-"

"I think I saw Jaune enter the tower." Ruby blurted out. The statement was delivered so quickly, Yang didn't fully process it at first.

"-knows when-Woah wait back up!" Yang sputtered.

"I said-"

"Yeah I heard the words, but that doesn't make any sense! Why would Jaune of all people be here? I haven't seen that tin-can since he busted out of Atlas and-!"

"He was dragging something with him." Ruby hurried on. "I saw it in the video, it was hard to see, but he definitely brought something into the tower with him. I just didn't want to bring it up in front of Goodwitch." She persisted.

"Ruby, look-" Yang raised her hands in exasperation. "-how can you even be sure it was Jaune though? Ok so yeah, he's more robot than human nowadays sure and that makes figuring him out kinda hard to predict, I'll give you that, but that vid quality was garbage. Goodwitch said it herself. How can you be sure it wasn't just another malfunctioning AK bot from before the invasion? Ironwood brought enough of the damn things with him to Beacon back then. One of them might have survived all this time and just been wandering around with its circuits all fried up and stuff."

"It couldn't have been." Ruby countered. "I know the schematics of those things. Their power cores only last for 2 weeks before they have to be plugged into a service station to recharge."

"You spent too much time around Atlas." Yang muttered shook her head. "Besides, someone could have dropped it off recently! What if Atlas is trying out some new tech or something? Goodwitch said an Atlas team was supposedly scouring this place before, good as place as any to try it out!"

"Goodwitch or the other scouts would have noticed it." Ruby replied diffidently. "We've both seen those dropships Atlas uses Yang, they're not exactly subtle."

"That we know of! It's been years since the invasion Ruby, I'm sure that Ironwood is cooking up all sorts of crazy stuff. They built Jaune and Penny, who says they can't come up with some kinda stealthy dropship?"

Ruby frowned slightly. "Why are you so certain it's not him?"

Yang started to point, then stopped and took a deep breath. "Look, I know Jaune was important to you. Hell he was always nice in a dorky sort of way. He's been with us since the beginning right? But people change Ruby. I mean, look what he's been through! Nearly lost his whole damn body, survived two invasions by Grimm..." She lifted her prosthetic arm. "I just lost an arm and it wrecked me for months, what do you think's happened to him?" She clenched her eyes shut for a second, balling her hands into fists. "And you know it too I bet. You bounced back from your injuries faster than me, but don't tell me you didn't have a hard time getting used to them." She jerked a finger down at Ruby's legs.

"What Jaune went through, I can't even begin to imagine. Plus then losing Pyrrha right in front of him? The guy was off the rails when fighting with us Ruby! He half looked like he wanted to die, and probably would have if Ren and Nora hadn't been keeping him in check!" She yanked her scroll from her belt and jerked it towards Ruby.

"And what about that letter we got from Weiss?! Vomit boy shows up out of the blue to the gates of Atlas, demanding to be repaired, then busts out of the containment and vanishes again! Why would he come here? What's waiting for him back at Beacon?"

"I dunno...? Maybe he brought in some high explosive or something? Blew up the Dragon on the video?"

"You really think he dragged his chrome ass all the way back to Beacon to do that?"

"We won't know until we look won't we?" Ruby snapped, then seeing Yang's eyes begin to glow red again, hurried on. "Look, lets just first try to approach the tower ok? One way or another, there's something in there that's somehow pacifying all of those Grimm. That alone is worth looking at don't you think?"

The anger in Yang's eyes faded. Letting out a slow breath, she nodded. "Ok...I admit I'm kinda curious myself. But if we do this, if we are going in there, I make the final call on whether pull back or not, got it?"

"Yang come on..." Ruby began before Yang cut her off again.

"Don't 'come on' me! We've lost too damn much at this school to add one of us to the list. If you want my help, this is what I want."

Ruby rolled her eyes in annoyance, but quickly relented, if only to stop the argument from escalating further.

"Fine. We'll do this your way."

Yang nodded curtly. "Finally some sense in all of this." She followed Ruby's gaze around the area surrounding the observation post. "So, what do you think, how do you want to approach it?"

"I thought you said you wanted to do it your way?" Ruby looked up in surprise.

"Yeah we are." Yang turned back and smiled broadly. "Right now, my way is to let you take the lead on approach since you're better at sneaking up on Grimm than I am."

"Yaaang..." Ruby groaned.

"Come on Ruby. Sooner we finish this, the sooner we add another notch to our Hunter record and I can get access to a hot shower and chow." Yang motioned for Ruby to lead off.

The approach towards the tower proved to be a lot more difficult than they had anticipated. The heavy presence of Grimm had already forced them to move slowly to begin with, almost tiptoeing at times past a few scattered Grimm that had wandered away from the larger herd near the tower, but the sheer variety of obstacles brought their overall speed to little more than a snails pace. Collapsed buildings, debris, and even several sinkholes too deep to see the bottom all got in their way, and by the time they were in sight of the large Grimm herd, the sun was approaching the edge of the horizon. After getting to within a hundred yards of the mass of Creepers that formed the outer edge of the horde, they climbed on top of the remains of a 2nd floor class room and trained their eyes out through the shattered windows.

"Holy gods..." Yang whispered. "I knew there were a lot of them but up close like this..."

"Yeah..." Ruby breathed.

'Up close', their situation looked even worse than what they had seen on the video. The Grimm were packed in so tightly, the horde resembled a black, spikey wall of fur and bone. Worse, the way the creatures stood in line, unmoving, rigidly cowed by whatever was in the tower was something so ludicrous to behold Ruby wouldn't have believed it had she not just seen it with her own two eyes.

Ruby blinked. Then shook her head rapidly.

"You ok sis?" Yang shifted closer.

Ruby's heart pounded hard against her chest. "Yang...somethings wrong." Ruby breathed.

"Yeah no shit sis, we're on top of a fuck-ton of Grimm here."

"No, no I mean-My eyes..." Ruby swallowed through a throat that had suddenly become painfully dry. "...my eyes...they're not acting up. Usually when we get so close to Grimm they're like...needles..."

"Yeah you always said it was like pinpricks and stuff after the dragon and all, I get it. You're saying it's not happening anymore?" Yang looked from Ruby to a boarbatusk wandering into the open area between them and the herd.

"Yeah...with large packs of Grimm nearby, it becomes so bad it's hard to keep my eyes open, but now it's stopped. Completely."

"What does that mean?" Yang turned to look at her sister. Her face had gone chalk white, and Crescent Rose trembled in her hands as she stared into the mass of Grimm before them.

"I don't know. I think I'll be ok...just give me a second." She swallowed again, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to recall the calming techniques her father had taught her during their last visit. After a few minutes of slow rhythmic breathing, she turned to Yang again. "I want to try something. I know it's crazy but-"

"What? What do you want to do?"

Ruby looked back to the Grimm, still facing the tower and as frozen as statues. Pulling Crescent Rose closer, she flicked up its scope and zoomed in on the nearest Creeper. Even zoomed up close, they stood so still she couldn't even see their bodies drawing breath.

"Ruby...what are you doing?" Yang whispered again.

Ruby didn't answer.

"Ruby!" Yang hissed.

Ruby started then pulled back from her scope. "Sorry about that...this is all just too weird for me."

"You and me both, so what did you want to do?"

"Well, I was thinking. The Grimm around the tower seem to be...I dunno frozen. Like more than just standing still, like they're not even breathing." Ruby shouldered Crescent Rose again and sighted in on the lone Boarbatusk that stood away from the main herd.

"So...what if we tested to see how they react?" Ruby moved her supporting hand off Crescent Rose and pointed. "That Boarbatusk. The one away from the herd. If we take it out from here, we can see how the rest of the herd will react."

"Are you crazy?!" Yang nearly shouted before she could stop herself. "That'll draw the whole damn herd over here!"

"I don't think so." Ruby murmured. "I have a feeling the main group won't even notice."

Yang's mouth opened slightly. "You...have a feeling? Ruby are you nuts!? That's not enough distance for us to get away if they charge us!"

"It's enough." Ruby replied with unusual calm despite the iron grip she maintained on her weapon. "Besides, if we're going to get through that tower, we're going to have pass through those Grimm one way or another. This'll at least give us an idea of what they'll do."

"Ruby..." Yang began, then backed away from the edge and shifted to a kneeling position "...This is too much. Seriously, I'm calling it here, there's no way we can get through that pack. This was stupid and Goodwitch is stupider for even thinking we could do this in the first place."

"You can leave if you want." Ruby replied in the same calm tone that was having the opposite effect on Yang. "But I'm going to at least try this first. I'm not giving up on Beacon this easily." She finally pulled her eyes from the scope and glared up at her sister.

Yang sighed angrily through her nose matching Ruby's glare for only a few seconds before looking away. She'd never leave her sister alone on a mission like this and Ruby knew it. "Is this really about saving Beacon Ruby? Be honest with me, I deserve that much if I'm we're going to do this."

"It is about Beacon!" Ruby shot back obstinately. "But it's more than that! Jaune, what's controlling the Grimm, whatever happened to the Dragon...take your pick any one of those are enough for me. I know you're worried-"

Yang's eyes flared open. "Who said I was worried!?" She nearly shrieked. "Ok fine fine, sue for me for having second thoughts about taking on a mountain of Grimm! Can we at least pull back another hundred yards or something? Please?"

Ruby smiled but had to agree the idea had merit. Folding Crescent Rose back down and securing it to her waist, they spent several minutes slowly pulling back from their perch, eventually selecting the crumbled remains of what appeared to be some kind of pumping station. Reaching the ceiling and making their way around a large hole revealing the shattered remains of power transformers and pumps, Ruby braced the rifle on a large chunk of plascrete and sighted in on the Boarbatusk she had been observing earlier. It had changed positions from their earlier spot, but was now focused on rooting out some tasty morsel that had buried itself in the dirt.

 _Enjoy your last meal I guess..._ Ruby thought to herself, letting the curiosity of what exactly Grimm ate enter her thoughts for the briefest of moments before shrugging it off and adjusting her scope for the increased range. Turning to Yang she nodded.

"Alright sis, lets do this. Ready when you are." Yang had her binoculars fixed towards the horde in anticipation.

Ruby let out a low breath and rested her finger on the trigger. No breeze and a mild day. She couldn't have asked for more ideal conditions for a shot. Resting the crosshairs just above the Boarbatusk's head, she let the last of her breath leave her lungs and gently squeezed the last few ounces of pressure on the two stage trigger.

Crescent Rose bucked into her shoulder, causing her to momentarily lose sight of her target. Rapidly racking another round into the chamber, she reacquired her target only to see the last remains of the Boarbatusk dissolving into the air. The last echoes of the shot faded into the distance as the two sisters held their collective breath, waiting to see what would happen next.

"I don't believe it..." Yang whispered.

"What is it Yang? Anything?" Ruby adjusted her sight picture just as Yang replied.

"You were right Sis...they didn't even budge. Not even turn around or anything. Glad I didn't put money on that bet..."

"Yeah... I've never seen them do this before, it just doesn't make any sense!"

"None of this job makes any sense Ruby, at this point it couldn't get any damn weirder than if you walked up to them and just asked them to let us in!"

Ruby pulled her eyes from the scope and looked at Yang.

"Oh don't even think about it!"

"I'm just saying considering they haven't moved yet they probably aren't going to-"

"NO RUBY! This is not up for discussion! That's even dumber than your idea of trying to make a cake stuffed pie, it's not happening ok?!"

Ruby muttered something about not understanding her vision then went back to her scope. The herd still hadn't budged an inch. All that had changed was the furrow that her round had dug into the dirt and traveled up to the feet of one of the creepers standing out at the outer edges of the group.

"Hey Yang..." Ruby began.

"Ruby don't even start with me-"

"No no, it's not that it's just...what about trying to shoot one of the herd then? They didn't pay attention to the one standing outside of their group, what about one of the ones inside then? That would give us a better idea right? And we're far enough away we could out run them..."

Yang lowered the binoculars, pinching her nose. "Ruby you are certifiably nuts. You poke the hive that badly you are going to get stung you know that right?"

"Wont' know until we-"

"-Yeah yeah, try I get it." Yang let out a long sigh. "Look, you got lucky with that shot, but shooting the herd like that? That's just plain suicide. Even you can't seriously think you can shoot down enough Grimm before they're on top of us-"

Ruby started to protest but Yang waved her hand.

"-No listen to me. I'm not saying we give up now. This stuff's weird enough that I want to find out more, but we're going to do it my way." Yang reached down and picked up the binoculars from the roof.

"What do you have in mind?" Ruby looked up to see Yang scanning the upper portions of the tower.

"We do an aerial insertion." Yang pointed to the crumbling remains of Ozpin's office tower that adjoined the comm tower. "Ozpin's tower is probably big enough we can land the Bullhead on top of it. We have those grapple launchers in storage..." She traced a line between the two towers. "...we deploy them and just zipline into the comm tower. We get a headstart inside and avoid the uglies outside." She lowered the binoculars. "What do you think?"

Ruby looked towards the tower. The hole where the dragon had been certainly was large enough...and Ozpin's tower certainly _looked_ stout enough...

"Wait! Didn't Professor Goodwitch's drones all get knocked out when they got close to the tower?" Ruby looked back to Yang. "That means Nevermores! We can't-!"

"-The Bullhead has guns remember?" Yang grinned wickedly. "And I topped off the ammo drums with some extra special stuff from the last job. Besides..." She tucked the Binoculars in her side pack and started climbing down the generator building. "...I'd feel much better diving into that mess surrounded by metal and ammo wouldn't you?"

"Well yeah but..." Ruby trailed off. She couldn't find a convincing argument to Yang's idea. She was a great shot sure, but even she had to submit to the reality that there were more Grimm than she had bullets, and Yang had more than enough experience fighting Nevermores in their Bullhead.

"Come on lets hustle, I don't want to make this approach at night!" Yang landed with a heavy thud, while Ruby followed a second later. Traversing the same path they had taken towards the tower, they sprinted as quickly and as cautiously as they could manage. Despite the initial contact on their approach, their return yielded no encounters with any wandering packs of Grimm, a boon they were supremely thankful for as the sun was dipping into the horizon by the time they reached their Gunship.

"Yang, we'd better let Professor Goodwitch know what we're doing. We don't want to get mistaken for some kind of intruder." Ruby hurried up the descending ramp and strapped into the copilot seat up front.

"You take care of it sis. Gotta get this hulk off the ground." Yang muttered as she rapidly flicked switches and buttons.

Ruby donned an old headset and dialed the radio to the frequency Goodwitch had provided earlier. "Professor Goodwitch! This is Ruby! Can you hear me?"

Harsh static blasted through her headset. Ruby winced and reduced the volume. It sounded like someone had come through but-"Professor Goodwitch, do you copy?"

"-at you? C*** he*** yo-" The transmission was too garbled to make any sense of before a louder surge of static washed through her speakers. She tried boosting the signal power to get through, repeating her attempts at contact before sighing in irritation and flicking the radio off.

"Anything?" Yang looked over as the engines screamed to life.

Ruby shook her head. "No luck, I thought I got through at first, but then the static just got worse the longer I tried."

"Got worse?"

"Yeah, don't know how to describe it. I thought I heard something, then the signal just died out completely. I hope nothing's wrong..." Ruby muttered, looking at the radio receiver in front of her.

"Well..." Yang pushed the throttle upwards. "...not much we can do about it now. We've probably got only one shot at this before we lose all light for the day. If we run into too many Nevermores or can't find a spot, I'll bring us back here and try again in the morning."

Ruby nodded then leaned back into the flight seat. The bullhead gained altitude, then rotated sharply, pressing Ruby into her seat as the Bullhead clawed its way through the roiled air over the campus. The harsh takeoff earned Yang a sideway's glance from her sister but nothing more. Still, Ruby rationalized they were on a short timetable and the less time spent fighting Nevermores in their playground the better, regardless of what Yang thought of the twin heavy machine guns bolted to their ship.

The Bullhead closed the distance between the two spires shortly and began circling. Ruby's eyes flicked nervously back and forth from the window to their radar screen, trying to stay alert to any possible sign of Nevermores or whatever other flying nightmare could possibly come their way. The Bullhead drifted almost lazily in the evening air as Yang adjusted the controls and started bringing the aircraft closer in.

"Alright, starting final approach." Yang leaned forward, peering out of the windows towards the remains of Ozpin's tower. "I'll try to park it right in his office. Most of the walls look like they were blown out. Plenty of space." Yang grinned almost sheepishly turning to Ruby. "Hopefully Oz won't mind us making an even bigger mess of the place than it already is?"

The Bullhead crept closer. Yang gently twitched the flight sticks, continuing the Bullhead's slow lateral drift as the remains of Ozpin's top floor office began to fill their windows.

"This'll be tight..." Yang gritted her teeth. "...be ready for anything sis, I want you on those guns if something jumps us." Yang focused harder on the wrecked tile floor of the office while Ruby tightly gripped the trigger sticks at her console. Her eyes were already beginning to prickle. _Perfect timing..._ She grumped, hoping they wouldn't get any worse. That train of thought was suddenly derailed when their craft jerked to a halt, nearly ejecting them from their seats.

"SHIT!" Yang screamed. "Did we hit something?!" She yanked the yoke in the opposite direction, certain she must have smacked into some exposed beam or piece of structure. The Bullhead moved a few feet in the air than slammed to a halt again, the fuselage groaning in protest as it dangled helplessly in the air above the tower.

"What the fuck!?" Yang screamed as she fought with the controls. "Ruby you ok?"

Ruby had gone pale, her eyes wide in shock as she looked back and forth from Yang to the building just in front of them. "Y-Yang! Are we stuck? What happened?" Her knuckles were gripping the firing handles so hard Yang was worried she might accidentally hit the firing studs. She shoved that thought aside and turned back to her controls.

"Not sure! Hang on, I'm going to get us out of here!" Despite moving the yoke in every direction, the Bullhead merely jerked and bucked like a chained Ursa, sending sounds of screeching metal throughout the hull.

"Oh fuck this shit!" Yang raged. She reached for the throttle and jammed the lever into the redline, pulling the yoke away from the tower and hoping the extra power would break them free of...whatever it was that holding them here. The firewalled engines howled in protest as Burn Dust was dumped directly into their oxidizers, sending alerts and alarms flaring all over the control panel.

"AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Yang's concentration was shattered as the sound of her sister's voice momentarily drowned out the blaring alerts in front of her.

"RUBY! What's wrong!?" Yang yelled. She saw Ruby writhing in the co-pilot seat, hands clutched to her eyes.

Ruby could only manage a gurgle to Yang's question as the sensation of daggers being driven into her eyeballs overwhelmed her senses. She was everywhere and nowhere, her mind slipping in and out of consciousness as her body struggled to deal with the tidal wave of pain surging through her. She felt herself vomit up the remains of the ration bar she had eaten on their way to Beacon, but it might have been someone else's body for all she could tell. The nausea flared again, hitting her hard along with the pain. Her body flopped limply into the seat, held up only by the crash harness she had strapped herself into.

"Ruby! Talk to me! What's going on?" Yang called as more warnings and alerts blipped into life. Everything from Coolant Pump failures to Hull Breaches splashed across her console, dividing her attention between keeping the craft in the air, and trying to figure out what was going on with her sister.

The ship was shaking so violently it felt like being on the inside of a cocktail shaker held by an angry giant. Sections of interior paneling and wires tore loose, sending sparks and fragments ricocheting all over the cabin. A particularly brutal lurch towards the tower smacked Yang's head against a bulkhead, filling her vision with stars as she desperately fumbled with the control yoke. Trying one last time to free them, she pulled back on the yoke so hard the plastic coating on the handles cracked under the strain. The Bullhead savagely lurched again in response, nearly slamming her face into the control console had it not been for her grip on the controls. She felt the port side engine sputter and die, then the starboard one followed suit, erupting in a shower of sparks and flame that illuminated the evening sky. In a singular second of clarity amidst the chaos, Yang knew they were doomed. Alarms were screaming from every direction, acrid smoke poured into the cabin from the burning engines and electronics, and right next to her, Ruby sat crying in agony, tears and what looked like blood leaking from her eyes. Yang reached for Ruby's closest hand and pried it away from her face, revealing a bloodshot eye that twitched and rolled, seeing nothing but chaos.

"Y-Yang!" Ruby cried piteously, the agony overwhelming what little sanity she had left. "Yang I'm scared! It hurts so much! I can't see anything! HELP ME!"

Yang's stomach lurched up into her throat as the craft abruptly began to lose altitude. Tearing her eyes away from her injured sister, Yang looked out the cracked windshield to see the Comm tower hurtling them toward them.

They were going too fast.

They were going to hit.

The last conscious thought that tore through Yang's mind before the wall filled her vision was this had all been her fault.


	5. Chapter 3 Part 3

The Bullhead slammed into the Comm tower, smashing through the lip of the hole left by the Dragon and careening down into the lower levels. Ricocheting and cartwheeling off the interior walls, it tore chunks of masonry and dusteel from the structure, sending them raining down around the wrecked craft and on to the Grimm down below, crushing several, but not breaking their rigid formation. Yang had always taken good care of machines under her control, and this craft was no exception. A year prior she had reinforced the armor paneling and shock mounts around the cockpit with the proceeds from a particularly good hunt, figuring that while the rest of the craft could suffer catastrophic damage, at least whomever was in the pilot area (Yang or Ruby) would survive long enough to put the craft down safely. It had been this bit of foresight that ended up saving their lives. While whole sections of the aircraft were being torn away, the armored bathtub of armor plates surrounding the cockpit held fast as they smashed through the interior of the building. After pulverizing several flights of stairwell, the remains of the Bullhead finally came to a stop, wedging itself nose-first into the main elevator shaft.

The tomb-like silence that followed would have been unnerving had either girl been conscious to make note of it. Aside from an occasional piece of debris falling from above or a spark from a loose wire, the Comm tower resumed its silent existence that the arrival of the flaming aircraft had rudely interrupted. Yang regained consciousness first, awoken by a sudden stab of pain racing down her shoulder and forcing her eyes open. For a terrifying moment she didn't know where she was, further jolting her awake with sudden panic. She tried to look around, but the inky blackness surrounding her made visual reference of her surroundings impossible.

She twisted her head around back and forth, feeling the repeated stabs of pain traveling up and down her shoulders and back. Wincing she then moved on to her fingers and toes, wiggling each of them in turn and smiling in quiet relief. Though her knees and shoulders hurt like hell, pain at least meant things were attached and working. First thing she had to do was check on Ruby, but the darkness in the interior of the cabin was so smothering she could barely see the outlines of the smashed control console in front of her.

Reaching below her pilot's seat, she felt around for the heavy nylon bag that contained the craft's emergency repair and first aid kit. The repair kit itself was useless, even without seeing around her she knew this old bucket of bolts was a goner...but it did have a lantern and chemlights which were far more useful at the moment. Pulling the pack up she was about to undo the zipper, then stopped. What if there were Grimm outside just waiting to pounce? Or whatever thing had attacked them and crashed their ship? Lighting one of the chemlights might as well invite them inside for a huntress buffet...

She closed her eyes and held her breath, trying to listen to her surroundings. Aside from the crackle of wiring and the faint breathing of her sister, a heavy silence was all that greeted her. She grit her teeth. Ember Celica would have to be enough to protect them from whatever came their way. She slowly undid the zipper of the bag and fished around for the first chemlight. Grabbing it, she cracked the center and shook it vigorously, bathing their cabin with a sickly green glow.

She waited another few minutes, listening for anything that may be approaching, but hearing nothing else, decided it was safe to get more lighting up and running. Pulling a tiny wall lamp from the pack, she pressed the magnetic end to a smooth portion of the bulkhead. Feeling for the switch mounted on the side, she flicked it on, adding a torch of bright light to the pale green one at her feet. Satisfied, she then turned to getting free of her crash harness and moved to check on Ruby. She checked for her pulse first. It was slow but steady, a good thing as far as her limited knowledge of first aid told her. She moved the chemlight all around Ruby's limp body, checking to see if there were any obvious injuries other than...

"Gods sis..." Yang muttered. The glow of the portable torch fell upon Ruby's face, illuminating rivulets of shiny blood leaking from her eyes. The best that could be said was the bleeding appeared to have stopped, leaving only dark tears lining her face. Yang turned back to her emergency pack and pulled the first aid kit and got to work. It took a while to locate them in the dim light, but she eventually pulled a bottle of disinfectant and an eye dropper from the bottom of the pack, along with some cleaning pads. The harsh smell of the disinfectant quickly filled the interior of the cabin, making Yang's nose wrinkle in irritation. She set the bottle of disinfectant aside and grabbed the dropper. Gently peeling back one of Ruby's eyelids, Yang leaned over for a better look.

"What the hell...?" It had to be the light, there was no way that could be but...Yang shook her head and resumed her work, flushing the congealed blood out of Ruby's eyes. She had just finished when a low groan escaped Ruby's lips.

"Mmmurgh...what...Yang?"

"Easy there...don't move ok?" Yang reached across Ruby and gently clasped both of her hands. "I'm here ok? I gotcha. Can you feel my hands? Can you hear me?"

"Mgh...I can hear you fine Yang, you're right next to me-"

"-Can you feel my hands? Can you feel your legs?" Yang repeated again.

"Yes, I can feel them, they're fine Yang!" She pulled a hand back from Yang's grasp and felt around her. "Where...where are we? What happened?"

Yang continued to examine Ruby's head, gently feeling around for any contusions or swelling. "Short answer is, we crashed into what I think is the comm tower."

"But how? We were just hovering and...did...did something hit us?"

Yang sighed. "I honestly don't know. One second we were hovering and the next thing I know we got flung into the tower. Bullhead's a total loss, and I don't know how far we got tossed down into this place." Yang paused then glanced sideways at Ruby. "Also...you uh, your eyes sis...they've uh...not sure how to put this..."

"What?" Ruby cocked her head slightly.

"...here. It's better if I show you. Might as well see it for yourself." Yang held up a small mirror from the first aid kit to Ruby's face. Ruby gaped as she saw a pair of white orbs staring back at her.

"Can you see ok? Any blurriness or anything?"

Memories of that horrible sensation in the cockpit came flooding back, sending Ruby's skin an ashen white. That agonizing pain...the flash of...what? She had seen something. Right before the sensation overwhelmed her...a pair of eyes...each a different color...a shock of black hair...a throne...

Bile surged up her throat, forcing Yang to quickly back away and wait for the retching fit to pass. Once certain it was over, she moved in and wiped the mess from Ruby's lips.

"Here, take some water, it'll help with the taste." Yang held up her canteen which Ruby accepted with a weak nod. Swishing some water into her mouth she spat the rest into a corner and exhaled shakily.

"Sorry..." Ruby mumbled. Yang just waved it off and started rummaging through the emergency kit again. "I-I can still see ok, they hurt like hell, but still working I guess." She looked down at her hands. "Yang I..."

Yang looked up.

"I saw something...or someone. I'm not really sure. Back when we were hovering, before the crash...it was like something hit me, attacked me inside of my mind. Hurt worse than anything, not since-" She stopped, going paler still as she took another shuddering breath. "-not since my eyes activated for the first time...with the dragon."

Yang froze. "Wait...you mean there's another Dragon here in the comm tower!? You saw it?" Her voice was calm but even Ruby could hear the fear lacing Yang's words.

"N-no...not really." Ruby pressed a hand to her head. "...it was like...I saw someone...a person...and I think a chair? Like a really big chair...it was coming at me so fast, and the pain kinda blotted everything out."

"But no Dragon? You're sure about that?"

Ruby hesitated. "Well...I mean, it was all just flashes and stuff you know? I'm pretty sure I didn't see the dragon in there, just my eyes, they...felt like it was there I guess."

Yang went quiet for a moment as she contemplated her emergency kit. Ruby could see her eyes moving back and forth as she fiddled with the contents.

"Yang?"

Yang stood with a tired sigh, then moved over to Ruby and began working on releasing her harness. Several of the clasps had dented themselves shut, forcing Yang to retrieve her utility knife and cut the straps free.

"Yang what-?" Ruby began.

"-We're getting out of here." Yang interrupted harshly. "We're going to get out of this Bullhead, see if those grapple guns are still intact and get the fuck out of this tower!"

"Yang! Wait, what about the mission!?" Ruby gripped Yang's arm tightly only for her to pull away.

"Forget the fucking mission Ruby! I made the stupid goddamn decision to try and fly us in here and it nearly got us killed! I can't believe I let myself go along with this suicide gig in the first place, I should have told Goodwitch to shove it where the sun don't shine!" Yang was breathing rapidly. The pent up fear and frustration she had been keeping in check for the entire mission suddenly boiled out of her in a torrent.

"Yang, it's not that bad ok? I'm fine ok? We can still do-"

"You're not fine Ruby!" Yang nearly shouted. "We got fucking yanked out of the goddamn sky, we lost our ride out of this place, and you-!" Yang waved her hands in Ruby's direction then dropped them to her sides.

"-we've been on rough ones before this. I get that, and I bet that's what you're thinking this is, just another rough one." Yang knelt down and popped open a side compartment near the pilot's chair and started pulling out small satchels bound with black wire.

"But this? I saw you screaming your head off, saw your eyes leaking blood for gods sakes-and now they're like a pair of cue balls! Then you're also talking about visions of dragons and chairs and shit." Yang shook her head forcefully as she slammed the compartment door shut. "It's too goddamned much. I'm calling the mission. Should have called it before we even left the god damned ground. We're getting out of here."

"Come on Yang, I can handle this! Really I'm fine!" She pulled herself out of the co-pilot seat.

"We're done talking about this." Yang growled. "I get to make the final call whether we proceed with the mission remember? And I'm calling it. Get ready to move in five, I'm going to see if those grapple guns are still in their locker." She ducked under a buckled bulkhead and moved into the remains of the drop-bay before Ruby could say anything else.

Yang was back in a few minutes dragging a heavy canvas bag. Reaching down she tossed in the wire covered bundles and hefted it on her shoulder. She then turned to Ruby.

"Ready?"

Ruby had already secured Crescent Rose to her waist and stood there slightly hunched over in the cockpit. She offered only a sad nod in reply. Yang appeared ready to say something else, but shook her head instead. Moving towards the console, she dropped the bag on the floor and crawled towards the cracked windshield. Flicking a switch on Ember Celica, an armored shell flipped over each of her hands. With several hard punches, the armored gloves punched out the bolts securing the windshield to the frame and the cracked sections fell back onto the nose of the gunship, eventually sliding off and falling into the inky abyss down below. Satisfied with her handiwork, the armored covers of her gauntlets slid back with a loud clack, and Yang proceeded to crawl out through the new hole in the front of the Bullhead.

"Watch the glass. Still some jaggies there." Yang cautioned as she slowly pulled her way through.

After a few minutes of slow crawling and some choice curse words by Yang on account of the bag getting stuck, the two sisters found themselves perched precariously on the nose of their ruined gunship.

Yang flicked on the portable torch she had used earlier and shined it around the main elevator shaft. The small beam barely penetrated the inky blackness that surrounded them, sending an involuntary chill down Yang's spine. Rotating the beam slightly around she saw an emergency access ladder near the door their gunship had blasted through.

"There." Yang pointed. "We use that ladder to get as high as we can, find a floor where we can see Ozpin's tower and rappel back towards it."

"But...how will we get to the tower? The lower levels don't have windows..." Ruby protested.

Yang patted her large pack with a grin. "You leave that to me sis." She looked over the gap from the Bullhead to the ladder. "Bit of a jump, not much but..." She turned back to Ruby. "...you ok?"

"I'm fine Yang, really! Lets just get off this thing, it feels-" The craft lurched forward with a groan of metal, sending plascrete dust trailing down below into the blackness. Ruby looked nervously to her sister. "-unstable."

"No need to tell me twice." Yang cinched the pack tighter against her shoulders. Gauging the gap as best as she could, she took a few running steps and leaped off the nose cone, soaring through the air for a few terrifying seconds before she slammed into the rungs with a loud clatter. Gripping the rungs as tightly as she could, she let out a small sigh of relief and turned back to Ruby. "Your turn sis! Move it!"

Ruby made the jump easily, landing just below her sister with a small _oof!_ of exhaled air. Nodding at Yang they began their climb. They hadn't climbed for more than a few minutes before another low groan of metal echoed from below them. Looking down, Yang saw the shadowy outline of the Bullhead's nose tip over and careen into the abyss with a distant crash.

"So long ya old Rustbucket. Guess it's official now..." Yang muttered.

The climb continued for what seemed like ages. The small torch Yang gripped in her teeth illuminated a tiny cone of light in front them as they slowly ascended, but was otherwise unable to push back the encroaching darkness. The silence seemed to press in upon them the higher they went. Yang couldn't help but feel a sense of dread welling up inside her with each passing rung, almost as if they were approaching a particularly large pack of Grimm.

"How're your eyes Ruby?" Yang whispered.

"Still kinda sore." Ruby whispered back. "Otherwise doing ok. Why?"

"Just...let me know if anything changes." She turned back up to resume her climb, and the pair lapsed into a tired silence. The stress and panic from the crash had long since bled off, replaced with mounting fatigue from the seemingly endless climb and a long day that had been anything but ordinary. Yang's mind repeatedly drifted back to wondering how high this tower went and why hadn't they tried to call one of the elevators. She had used it several times herself back during her Beacon days, but having the elevator do the heavy lifting tended to make one forget the actual logistics of ascending such a tall place.

Now each passing rung served as a tiresome reminder of how far they had to go. Yang wanted to get as much height as possible for the Grapple gun to do its work, but the fatigue in her arms was beginning to make her reconsider that decision. So focused was she on her internal reverie that she didn't notice the blockage on the ladder until one of Ember Celica's gauntlets smacked into it with a loud clank, causing her to nearly lose her grip in surprise. She looked up with her torch and saw a large steel girder smashed through the ladder above her. Shining the light around revealed that the entirety of the elevator shaft was completely blocked by a variety of collapsed steel girders and rebar. Even from the small section illuminated by the torch, Yang quickly saw there was no way they'd be forcing their way through that mess. Silently cursing at yet another thing to go wrong, she looked around the shaft, eventually spotting the door to the floor they had just passed. Motioning to her sister to move back down, they descended a few steps until they were level with the door. Yang braced herself against the ladder and forced the doors open a few inches to look around. Aside from piles of rubbish and smashed rubble, the area around the doorway looked deserted. Forcing the doors open further, she finally managed to slip through, then turned around to pull Ruby through the doors.

"Where are we?" Ruby whispered. She found an overturned desk chair near the door, righted it, and collapsed unceremoniously into the dusty cushion with a tired sigh. Yang could see her massaging her quivering arms as she leaned into the seat back.

Yang looked around. It looked like a floor of office suites and cubicles, or at least what was left of them. The whole place looked like an angry giant had ransacked the place and left it to rot. Everything was coated in a heavy patina of dust, and there didn't seem to be any piece of furniture or electronics equipment that didn't have some kind of damage to it. Walking around she examined a few cubicles, mainly to satisfy her curiosity, but only found piles of paper, a few shattered scrolls and heaps of other unidentifiable garbage. Her circuit of the area led her to a large set of double doors that appeared to be jammed shut. They probably could be forced open, but knowing her luck today it would probably attract Grimm or something worse. She walked back to Ruby, a frown etched on her face.

"Anything interesting?" Ruby looked up from her chair.

"Not much sis." Yang replied tiredly. "Looks like an office or something. I wanted to get higher up but...I guess this will have to do. Still wish we had windows or a hole to see outside. I know Ozpin's tower sits east of it...I think? But still, it'd be nice to know for sure."

"Don't our scrolls have compasses?" Ruby reached down into her satchel and pulled out her own. Loading up the compass app, she held it out for Yang.

"What the hell...?" Yang whispered. The compass, to put it mildly, was going berserk. North kept spinning and gyrating in every possible direction, changing orientation faster than they could keep track of it.

"So much for that I guess." Ruby grumped, stuffing the scroll back into her pocket. "Now what do we do?"

"Well...door out of here looks like it's barred from the outside. We could probably bust through it easy enough, though it'd make a lot of noise. That, or we make our own exit and take a risk with the grapple gun."

"Make our own exit?"

Yang reached into the bag with a grin and pulled out one of the wire-covered bundles Ruby had seen earlier. "One of these ought to do it. BAM! Instant doorway!"

"Won't that make a lot of noise too?" Ruby asked skeptically.

"Oh yeah for sure!" Yang grinned. "But that way also allows us a faster exit once the hole's there." She walked over to what she gauged was the rough center of the office complex, then walked to the corresponding point on the wall where she affixed the bundle. She returned to where Ruby sat by the elevator door trailing a thin wire behind her.

"Yang...I don't think this is a good idea. What if it triggers another collapse or something? Or attracts more Grimm?"

"That's just a risk we have to take sis. One way or another, we need out of this place and the faster we do it the better-"

The sound of crashing metal froze both sisters on the spot.

"What was that?!" Ruby shrieked.

"The doors!" Yang replied. "Quick, behind the desks!" Yang grabbed Ruby and half carried, half dragged her back to the first row of desks. Roughly flipping over several to form a crude barricade, the pair hunkered down behind the particle board furniture and readied their weapons.

"Good thing we haven't used much ammo yet." Yang muttered grimly, as another ear-splitting shriek of metal echoed from the other end of the hall.

"Whatever it is, it sounds big..." Ruby whispered, training her eyes and scope onto the shaking doors. Dust sprinkled down from the ceiling tiles as the assault on the door continued, and each huntress held their collective breath in anticipation.

"Sis, your eyes?" Yang looked sideways at Ruby.

"Still the same Yang!"

"So that means whatever's coming through isn't-"

Yang was interrupted for the 2nd time in as many minutes as the double doors were nearly blasted off their hinges. A heavy cloud of falling dust and disturbed debris flowed into the room, blocking sight of the newly created entrance.

 **"Man, you Atlas specops guys are usually quieter than this. Winter slacking on training or something?"** The sisters winced behind their barricade as an amplified voice boomed through the small office.

Yang thought the voice sounded familiar, but before she had a chance think about it further, heavy footfalls rapidly approached their position. Without thinking, she turned to her sister.

"OPEN FIRE RUBY!"

"But I can't-!"

"-Just shoot! It's right on top of us!"

 **"Ruby-? Hey wait-WOAH!"** The loud voice exclaimed before Ruby let loose her first round followed by several salvos from Yang's Ember Celica. Ear-shattering sounds of metal striking metal filled the room as their rounds smashed against the unknown target, sending sparks and shrapnel all around the entrance to the office.

"Keep firing! I'll get something special ready!" Reaching down for the wire she had trailed earlier, she pulled the explosive bundle back to her as fast as her arms allowed. Hands trembling, she plugged the wires leading out of the bundle into the detonator and activated the safety. The red indicator light flashed ready.

"Yang what are you doing!?" Ruby screamed.

"Two birds with one stone sis! Take cover and cover your ears!" She turned and chucked the bundle over the barricade trailing the detonator wire in a smooth arc behind it.

"Eat this!" Yang screamed and ducked behind the barrier with Ruby, thumbing the detonator paddle as she did so.

The explosive shockwave smashed the desks into their bodies, sending them tumbling along back into the rows of cubicles. Other desks simply disintegrated, chairs flew everywhere, and thousands of forgotten pieces of paper scattered throughout the room like so much confetti. The explosion triggered the still working fire sprinklers, sending a hail of cold, dirty water down over everything. Ruby ended up pinned under Yang who was likewise pinned under a smashed desk. With some effort and a curse word or two, they shoved the desk off of them where it landed on the carpet with a wet thud. A heavy silence followed, punctuated by settling debris and the fall of water as the old sprinklers performed their intended duty. Through the cloud of steam and dust, a hissing slab of glowing metal stood in the middle of the room, its angry red glow visible through the misty gloom.

"What is it? Did we kill it?" Ruby whispered as she slapped in a fresh mag and slowly peered over the remains of a nearby cubicle wall.

"Might as well find out." Yang muttered. Keeping her arms trained on the glowing hunk of metal, Yang stood up from the barricade. "Hey asshole! You dead yet?!"

A loud groan followed by creaking metal was their initial reply. "Nrghh...not yet. Though it's not for lack of trying on your part."

"Who are you!?" Yang yelled, trying to sound more intimidating than she really felt.

"That's my line, you shot first." The voice responded in an almost conversational tone, but it still filled the room with an unnatural intensity, almost vibrating against their skulls.

"Yeah!?" Yang shot back, her courage flaring back up from its earlier retreat. "Well you were ripping down the goddamn doors!"

"Less dramatic than using satchel charges in close quarters combat. You two have a death wish or something?" The voice replied in audible irritation.

"Yaaaang..." Ruby pleaded in a strained whisper. "...stop making it mad...we have to get out of here remember?"

They heard another creak of metal as the slab shifted. Several more seconds passed before the voice spoke again. "If I lower my shield and come out into the open, promise you won't shoot me?"

The two sisters shot a nervous looks at each other with the sudden change in direction the conversation had taken. Yang motioned for Ruby to back up to one of the desks behind her, to which Ruby nodded. When she had taken position a few desks away, Yang turned back to the stranger.

"Why the sudden change of heart? You sounded like you wanted to tear through us just a few seconds ago..."

"I want to confirm a hunch. Besides, I can already tell you're not Atlas specops, so can we stop the dramatics and talk?"

"Oh yeah? And what makes you so sure of that!?" Yang shot back, suppressing a stab of fear at how quickly her charade was being torn down.

"For starters, letting me know you're about to set off an explosive was kind of a big hint." A loud series of clanks and whining of gears filled the room, followed by heavy advancing footsteps. "I'm coming towards you with my hands up ok? I'd appreciate you not shooting me with that arm cannon of yours."

Yang suddenly realized she had retreated several steps back from her barricade without even noticing. Already she had closed half the distance to where her sister had taken up a shooting spot. If this thing charged them, they'd have precious little time to respond. It did say it wanted to talk, and as far as she knew, Grimm didn't speak in human tongue...

"Ok...move forward slowly. Take one step outta line and we put a bullet in your head, you got it?!" Already Yang could tell whatever it was towered above her, its head nearly scraped the ceiling as a metallic figure began to emerge from the dust cloud.

"Oh I'm sure..." Yang's eyes went as wide as dinner plates as the figure emerged from the mist.

"...but I'd like to think that not keeping in touch for so long would earn me something a bit less harsh don't you think?" Jaune finished with a grin.


	6. Chapter 3 Part 4

The two sisters gaped for a solid five seconds before Ruby squealed in happy surprise and ran forward to join her sister.

"Oh my gosh Jaune! Is that really you!? I can't believe it! Where you have been? Is that new Armor?! It is new Armor! You look totally different!" Ruby gushed, her inner engineer going into overdrive as she marveled at her armored friend she hadn't seen in over a year. He certainly looked different. Ceramic mesh inserts, completely new shield design too, she'd have to ask him about that later...and his chestpiece definitely had been replaced, but that was a given since the last time she had seen it in person, it had a crater the size of her head in the middle of it.

Ruby frowned. He'd also had more work done on his face too. It was something that privately disturbed her on a fundamental level, yet had never managed the courage to broach the subject. Seeing that rictus of exposed synthetic bone and teeth still gave off the impression of a walking corpse, no matter now friendly the remaining fleshy parts of his face looked.

"Jaune...what...WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" Yang finally shouted. The sudden outburst broke Ruby out of her reverie. Even Jaune seemed surprised, letting his smile falter briefly before returning.

"Well, I could ask you the same thing. How'd you guys end up here anyway? What are you doing at Beacon-?"

"-Our Bullhead crashed into the tower." Yang replied flatly.

Jaune's smile faltered again. "Ah." He looked back and forth from Yang then to Ruby, confusion visible on his face. "Wait...so that gunship just now...that was...?"

"Yeah. Ours." Yang growled. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea about how that happened would you? Crash nearly killed us you know." Ruby looked nervously towards Yang as she took a step closer.

"Ah shit..." Jaune reached behind his head to scratch his non-existent scalp before stopping. "You're...you're both ok right? Nothing hurt or anything? Yang? Ruby? What happened to your eyes?" He looked over to Ruby who looked like she was trying to hide behind a desk.

"I-I'm fine. Really! Had a bit of a scare, but you know, all that milk had to count for something right?" Her attempt at humor was met with silence. Yang's eyes seemed be drilling through Jaune, who to Ruby's surprise couldn't seem to meet them.

Jaune suddenly clapped his hands together. "Yeah! Milk, that's ahhh...definitely important! Heh...well I am glad the both of you are ok. Kinda wished we were meeting under different circumstances but still...I'm glad you're alright at least."

Yang took another step forward. "You didn't answer my question. What are you doing here Jaune? It's been nearly a year! Why haven't you tried to contact us? Or Weiss? She's says she's been freaking out about you too you know!" Her finger jabbed into his chestplate with a dull thud.

Jaune's gaze looked down appraisingly at the gloved finger then back up at Yang. "Well...that's kind of a long story you know? Kinda boring and all really...It'd just tire you out and I'm sure you two have more important things to do than listen to me ramble." He paused for a breath. Ruby could hear the faint whine of his servos as he shifted weight, looking back and forth between them. In a way it almost reminded her of Zwei whimpering when he was scolded for blowing up his bed again. "What I mean is, I've been...researching...stuff." He hesitated. "You know, for Atlas! Stuff related to P-Penny!"

From the looks on their faces, Jaune might as well have told them he was a lead dancer in the Mistrali Ballet. "What I mean is, I'm on a top secret mission for Atlas. It has to do with Penny, but beyond that I can't say ok?" When the two sisters continued to stare at him he hurried on, talking faster. "Look I'm really sorry about your gunship Yang. Really I am. I'll figure out a way to help you out alright? But this place isn't safe, and that satchel charge of yours probably didn't do us any favors. Let me show you a way out of here and while we're walking I'll tell you all about the time I-" He had just begun to turn around when the sound of a chambering shell interrupted his babbling.

"Yang!" Ruby shrieked in horror. Yang's gauntlet rested a foot away from the back of Jaune's head.

"You're not going anywhere Vomit Boy." Her eyes narrowed, flaring crimson. A shimmer of heat roiled the air around her as her hair began to glow with building energy. "For starters, you're a terrible liar. Secondly, I'll say it again: What the fuck are you doing at Beacon?! I know you busted out of Atlas a while ago thanks to Weiss. I want some damn answers, or I'll turn you into the world's most expensive toaster oven!"

Jaune looked back towards her, and Ruby suddenly saw his expression properly. Equal parts fear and resolve were vying for control on what remained of Jaune's face. He'd never been a good liar or keeper of secrets. Even back during their Beacon days, he never managed to resist needling from people like Yang for long. "Yang...look. You gotta understand. I want to. I really do. I'd like to think you're still my best friends. But right now...this is too big for you two to get involved in." His shoulders slumped as he flexed his robotic gauntlets. "So you already know about my escape from Atlas. What did Weiss tell you exactly?"

"I dunno, she was freaking out that you showed up out of the blue demanding repairs and then busted out of there with no warning! Wrecked a whole bunch of labs and stole a bullhead."

"So she didn't tell you about the K-CAP then."

"Huh?" Yang cocked her head sideways.

"Kill-Capture Order. Means basically to shoot first, and maybe bring me alive if it's expedient. Found that out from the last team that tried to follow me here." He paused then sighed. "Judging by the looks on your faces I take it she left out that little detail. I do what I can to keep them off my back, but they eventually catch up to me. This armor is probably loaded with tracking devices." He expression hardened. "That's why you have to get out of here. This is something too damn dangerous for either of you to get mixed up in-"

"-And so what?!" Yang fired back. "Let us help you dammit! We can talk to Weiss! We can do something! We've done jobs for Atlas before, hell, Ironwood got me my Arm, that's gotta count for something!"

When Jaune said nothing, Yang seemed to get angrier. "We're not just little damsels in distress in case you haven't noticed! I can't believe you won't even tell us what's wrong!" Yang replied forcefully, lowering the gauntlet a fraction of an inch.

Jaune looked back at her, and Ruby could see genuine panic in his features now. He shook his head slowly. "I'm grateful you want to help me. I really am. But some things are just too big Yang."

"Bullshit. After all we've been through? What? Don't trust us or something!? Do we really mean that little to you?"

"NO! You don't understand!" Jaune replied, anger finally seeping into his mechanical voice. "This is something bigger than you, or your gunship, or...or even Beacon! The Grimm are out there waiting for-" He clapped an armored gauntlet to his mouth with loud _CLANK_.

Yang moved closer, pressing the muzzle of her gauntlet under Jaune's chin. When she spoke, her voice was calm, yet even Ruby joined Jaune in taking a step back. "You know something about those Grimm out there Vomit Boy?"

"Woah hey hold on ok! I don't-I mean I-!" Jaune stammered. He managed to take a step back before a loud whine of servos froze him in place, forcing his limbs out at odd angles.

Yang jumped back in alarm. "What the hell!?"

"What's going on!?" Ruby tried to run up but was stopped by Yang's arm.

"Don't! He's going weird!" The two of them faced the now rigid cyborg in equal parts confusion and alarm. His organic eye rolled and twisted then suddenly locked upon them. They heard a few electronic beeps and his face went strangely serene as his eyes, both organic and mechanical, slid out of focus.

His mouth opened. "...you sure? But you're not done yet! They won't understand! What about her-? Ok. Ok. If you say so. Alright I'll bring them in." And just as quickly as the bizzarre outburst had appeared, it was over. There was another whine of servos and Jaune suddenly resumed his normal posture, his chest armor creaked with his rapid breathing.

"What...the fuck was that?" Yang sputtered.

Jaune shook his head as if recovering from a hard punch to the temple. "Never really get used to that-" He suddenly looked up as if seeing the two huntresses for the first time. "Uhm..."

"J-Jaune?" Ruby whispered.

He looked back and forth between the two of them then sighed deeply. "Alright Yang, it's your lucky day. You want to know what's really going on?"

Yang nodded slowly. "Yeah, I do. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Jaune shook his head. "Not me. No. It got changed for me." Before Yang could ask what he meant, Jaune had turned and started walking out of the room. "Come on, might as well get this over with."

Yang shared an uncertain look with Ruby then looked back towards the slowly retreating form of Jaune. He had nearly made it to the ruined entrance when the two huntresses joined up behind him.

"You said your mind got changed. What does that mean? What happened back there?!" Yang called out as she followed a few steps behind him.

"You'll see soon enough." Jaune replied without looking back. "Besides, even if I told you now, you wouldn't believe me anyway." He sighed, and again reached for the back of his head to scratch a non-existent scalp. "Like I said earlier, some things are just too big you know?"

And with that, the trio lapsed into another uncomfortable silence. Their path took them outside of the office and into the walls of the comm tower itself. A makeshift stairwell had been installed around the main elevator shaft. The two girls looked at the structure, and both came to the conclusion that it was a few hard kicks away from completely collapsing upon itself. Still, whomever had assembled it appeared to have done a good enough job as Jaune walked on the narrow staircase without so much as a creak of metal in response. The other two followed and they resumed their ascent that had started inside the elevator shaft, and now wrapped around it. Yang shined her torch around the gloomy interior, trying to get her bearings on where they were, but couldn't really tell much beyond that they were near the top of the tower. After several minutes of climbing, Jaune climbed a ladder leading to a large hole in the ceiling adjoining the main shaft. The other girls followed suit, suddenly finding themselves in a familiar place.

"Is this...?" Ruby began.

"Yeah...main lobby." Yang supplied. "Main desk is a dead giveaway." She pointed to the cracked remains where a holographic secretary should have been coming into life right about now. The dull moonlight that shone through the dirty windows however showed the once bustling lobby in a state of gloomy disuse. What comm terminals weren't smashed or wrecked were coated in a heavy layer of dust and bird droppings.

"This way." Jaune motioned for them to follow. "Stick with me and don't go off my path."

"Why?" Ruby looked around him.

"Traps and anti intrusion alarms are setup all over this floor. End result isn't pretty." Jaune thumbed over to a spot between a pair of cubicles. A large brown-red stain was plainly visible on the carpet, while the surrounding desks were flecked with what had to be dried blood. "My first scavenger. Never found out who he was working for, but I don't suppose I have to worry about him anymore." He turned and began weaving his way through the cubicles, turning and moving seemingly at random through the paths between the desks.

"Damn Jaune..." Yang whispered as she craned her neck over the wall looking at the few tiny bits of bone left behind.

"Like I said earlier...some things are just too big to risk letting word get out."

"Like what?" Ruby piped up from behind Yang.

"You'll see soon enough. We're almost there anyway." He pointed to the set of doors Ruby had noticed earlier. It struck her that despite having been up here several times in the past, she had never really paid them much attention. They had simply been part of the background the few times she had reason to come here, whether to send a long distance message to her dad or that night she'd fought Cinder for the first time. Finally applying a critical eye, she was surprised by their construction. Even from this distance she could see they were different from the entrance doors the students would use. Heavily reinforced, and with hermetic seals around the edges. That detail alone piqued her curiosity even further.

After several minutes of seemingly random wandering through the desks and cubicles, including actually jumping between a pair of particularly large desks, they found themselves at the strange doors. Jaune turned to Ruby.

"Now look Ruby..." Jaune began then glanced nervously at Yang before continuing. "...there's no easy way to say this. I need to ask you something kinda personal."

Yang glared at Jaune but didn't say anything. "W-what?" Ruby responded nervously. It was weird seeing Jaune both so nervous and serious at the same time.

"Ok, I really hate having to bring up something so heavy but-your silver eyes. Can you control them?"

The two sisters shared a look, then turned back to Jaune.

"What? What do you mean?" Ruby fidgeted with the hem of her cape.

"I only ask because well..." He reached up behind his head to scratch it again, then stopped. Squaring his shoulders he focused on Ruby's face, his cybernetic eye glowed slightly in the dim light of the comm floor. "...behind this door is something that...look it'll be a problem if your power activates. I need to know if you're able to control it properly."

"Woah woah!" Yang moved forward. "That's only an issue if we're going up against a really powerful Grimm! So unless you've got like the mother of all Alphas back there why would-?" When Jaune continued to stare at Ruby, Yang's expression hardened. "Hang on...What the hell are we walking into?"

"I just need to know if she can control it Yang." He replied tensely. "Going past here is pointless unless you can keep that power in check. Can you?" There was another loud clack and Yang was pointing Ember Celica at Jaune's head again.

"Ruby come here, we're done talking." Yang growled. "This why you're trying to keep things hushed up? You doing some shit with Grimm? Trying to be the next goddamn Dr. Merlot!?" Yang's hair flared gold, and the air between them again shimmered under the intense heat.

"I'm not controlling Grimm if that's what you're asking. That's as far as I'll go out here. If you want to know more I need to know if Ruby can control her power. That's the price of admission." His gaze swiveled to the barrel of Yang's gauntlet and stared down at her. "And if I have to play the part of the bouncer, I will protect this place Yang. Please don't make me fight you or Ruby, that is the absolute last thing I want to do."

The standoff lasted several seconds, each side unwilling to back down, with Ruby nervously looking on between the two. Finally she stepped forward. "Jaune, I-I'm pretty sure I can control it. The first time-that is when I fought that dragon, I was completely overwhelmed...frantic, terrified you name it. As long as something doesn't jump me out of the blue, I should be ok. Is that enough?"

"Ruby what are you saying!? You can't seriously think about going in there with him!"

"He could have gone after us at any time Yang! Didn't you notice when we fought him he never drew his sword? And what about those traps and mines? He could have easily led us into one of those if he wanted! We gotta give him a chance! Come one I mean-!" She waved at the armored warrior in front of her. "-It's Jaune isn't it?"

Yang looked back at Jaune with visible fury on her face. Her sense of curiosity and need to protect her sister warred with the brawler within her who simply wanted to punch the issue until it went away. Looking to Ruby and seeing the determination within her eyes changed that equation somewhat. Ruby did have a point, yet Yang fervently wished it hadn't been about this issue. After struggling internally for a moment longer, she finally lowered her gauntlet and her glow faded. "I just...don't want anything to happen to her Jaune. She's my sister you know?" She walked over to Ruby and squeezed her shoulder.

"I know." Jaune replied quietly. "And I wouldn't be showing this to you if she didn't think you were ready." Jaune flipped up a hidden panel next to the door and pulled a small silver chain from a compartment on his thigh.

"Wait...who's 'she'?" Yang looked over to see Jaune inserting a tiny metal disk into the slot revealed by the door. Before she had a chance to examine it further, he had already replaced it within his compartment. The doors slid open with a quiet, pneumatic hiss.

"She's my Goddess." Jaune said with as much of a smile as he could muster. "Come on, she did say she wants to see you." And with that he crossed over the threshold and into a dark corridor.


	7. Chapter 3 Part 5

The darkness beyond the threshold was so thick that Jaune nearly disappeared from their sight as he crossed through it. Realizing he was walking away from them again, Yang and Ruby hurried after him.

"Swear to Gods Jaune, you keep talking in cryptic bullshit, I really will fire an 8-gauge up your ass. Who the fuck is this goddess?" Yang grumped.

"I'm sorry. I know I sound like a broken holovid, but words won't properly explain what you're about to see. You'll just have to wait a bit longer."

"Uh huh." Yang replied dubiously.

Ruby let the conversation wash over her as she looked around the...hall? It took her a second to realize with the dim light but they had entered a rather large complex. In a way it kind of reminded her of Weiss' estate back in Atlas, only more ornate-

-or at least it had been. Like the rest of the comm tower, this hallway had seen better days. The carpet at one time had clearly been of a nice, plush material. Yet now it was covered in dirt, tears and debris. Whole sections were treaded and worn down to the base fabric. The walls looked they had been once carved out of polished marble, and it was here where Ruby noticed the first signs of battle. Scorch marks dotted the area, whole sections of wall had been blasted away revealing the support structure underneath. Bits of metal and chunks of what looked like black glass pockmarked other sections, like they had been forcibly embedded by some massive force.

Her eyes prickled as they darted around nervously. Already she was feeling like she was back in the elevator shaft. A heavy, smothering feeling of dread covered her like a soggy blanket, and already her stomach was churning under the tension. Ahead, Yang appeared to be feeling something similar as Ruby heard the tension creeping into her voice.

"Jaune, what is this place exactly? When the hell did Beacon ever take decorating advice from the Schnees...?"

"I guess it does kind of look like it huh?" Jaune looked up at the ceiling. "Wasn't originally supposed to be that way honestly, but Ozpin insisted the Maiden's quarters needed to look nice if she was going to come out into the open I guess."

Yang whipped around. "Wait, so this was where Pyrrha-I mean-" Yang looked cautiously at Jaune who motioned for her to continue. "-so this was where she operated out of? Not bad...or well, I guess it used to huh?"

"Yeah." Jaune whispered. "It's certainly seen better days. Hopefully that'll change."

"Uh yeah, I'm sure the best interior decorators of Vale are just itching at the chance to wade through the Grimm outside and get to work on this place." Yang grinned sarcastically.

Ruby continued to walk behind them in silence. Her mind swirled with questions too numerous to count as the pain behind her eyes increased. The excitement and curiosity of seeing what was behind these doors had already been eclipsed by the pain and nausea growing within her as they progressed deeper into this hidden palace. ' _Goddess_ '? She hadn't misheard that bit of information, that much she was sure of, Jaune hadn't even attempted to pass it off as a slip of the tongue. And this was where Pyrrha had been living after fusing with the fall maiden? Was that why Jaune was here? Some twisted attachment to the memory of this place?

As they rounded a corner, a massive pair of doors became visible at the end of an even larger hall. Yang was right, this place _did_ remind her of the Schnee estate, right down to the marble everything. Yet even with all of the grandeur Weiss's family had on tap, it would have paled in comparison to this hall in its glory days. Now however, the Battle scars were more numerous here, more scorch marks, blasted masonry and-

Her foot caught and something and she stumbled. Bringing herself back to her feet she looked down only to recoil in disgust. The charred remains of a human skull looked up forlornly from a blackened crater in the floor. Ruby took a step back but then felt something else against her boot. Another corpse, or rather the charred skeleton of what had to have been another human body. Looking around, more blackened remains dotted the floor as her eyes adjusted to the gloom of the chamber. How had Yang not-?

"Yang!" The sudden call to her sister erupted as if by reflex.

"Ruby? What-?" So focused had Yang been with Jaune looking up at the ceiling that only now she noticed what Ruby had seen. Her mouth fell open in horror as Ruby dodged corpses running towards her. "Jaune! What is all this? What happened here?"

 _ **"They were fools who followed a false goddess."**_

The words crashed through the entire hall with enough force that they felt it within their chests. Pain surged into Ruby's eyes as she felt the familiar sensation of building power filling her skull and blurring her vision. She vaguely registered someone screaming. Was it Yang? It was all so fuzzy, like the television during a lightning storm. The doors at the other end of the hall were opening. Someone was walking towards them. Sinewy and powerful, they radiated an energy the likes of which she had not felt in some time.

Yang was shouting at Jaune who looked like he was trying to stop her, calm her down. That was a funny thing...why would Jaune need-?

Before she could form another cohesive thought, her vision had gone black. The next thing she knew she was being shaken roughly by a heavy pair of hands. Someone was yelling at her as if from a long hallway.

-ake up! Dammit sis come on! We gotta get out of here!" Ruby's eyes flickered open to see the dirty face of Yang looking down at her with a wild look in her eyes. "Oh thank the gods, you're up. Can you stand?"

"Wha-What happened?" Ruby feebly gripped at Yang's hands.

"Never mind, we gotta go!" Ruby could see Yang's arm pointed at something just out of her sight. She turned to see Jaune with his shield out, his body braced against it. A figure with a pair of glowing eyes looked on from the shadows. One a flaming gold...the other a burning misshapen red.

The same eyes from the gunship.

The Throne.

The Gunship.

The Crash.

Trembling as she crawled to her feet, Ruby looked to Yang then to Jaune. Trying to speak only elicited a squeak from her cottony dry lips as she felt Yang's other hand tighten around her shoulder.

"What the fuck did you do to my sister Jaune? And who the fuck is that? Answer me!" Yang raged. Ruby could hear the rattling of shells from Ember Celica as Yang held it pointed at Jaune.

The strange figure moved forward from the shadows, revealing charred black combat boots and thigh guards. A pair of black, chitinous claws extended from the darkness as if in perverted welcome, and while Ruby struggled to keep from screaming, the demonic visage of Cinder Fall revealed herself and took up position beside Jaune.

It was as if the dragon she had fought had come back to life in human form, but stopped halfway. Oily black chitin covered most of her arms and legs, and like Jaune, half of her face was simply gone. But where Jaune had been replaced with smooth steel and electronics, Cinder's face looked like it had been crudely dipped in chunky, burning tar. A shimmering red eye on that side of her face bore in on Ruby, its laser-like focus ensconced by a protruding gnarled half-skull that jutted into a misshapen horn standing on her head. The sight made Ruby ill with rage. Why wasn't Jaune attacking her? What was she doing here?! And all the while, Cinder regarded them with an almost matronly smile.

"What the holy fuck Jaune!? What is she-? Why!?" Yang tried to scream out, but like Ruby, the arrival of Cinder seemed to have sapped her of the ability to form coherent sentences.

Jaune turned to look at Cinder. Not with hatred or anticipation of a strike, but with...concern? The grip on his shield slackened as he leaned towards her. "I told you you weren't ready yet! You've still got her hair dammit!"

 **"Really? I thought I had eradicated her completely from this body..."** The demonic woman regarded a strand of her hair with surprising delicacy despite the gnarled claw that held it. **"So that's where you were hiding then? Persistent little bitch...but I suppose that's** **why Salem chose you to be her champion."**

The creature flashed a fang filled smile. **"In the end it doesn't matter. You have lost, and none shall mourn your existence. Goodbye...Cinder Fall."**

The acrid smell of ozone filled the air as the sound of something between a scream and tearing fabric filled their ears. Ruby watched as Cinder's hair began to shimmer, changing in color and length. Her red eye pulsed with some unknown power as tendrils of erratic energy flowed from within it, swarming all over Cinder's head. As the energy made contact, the hair began to change. First glowing, then growing. Longer and longer it grew, reaching down Cinder's back and turning a shade of bright crimson. And with a final crackle of energy and the echo of an agonized scream, a new figure stood before them.

 **"Hello again!"**


	8. Chapter 3 Part 6

Hunters are expected to endure many things above and beyond what a regular human goes through. It's part of their job. It is what is expected of them in this crazy world. Ruby liked to think that she could handle anything life had thrown her way. Especially since facing the demonic dragon and coming to terms with an ancient power that dwelled within her. But everyone has their limits, and Ruby had run smack dab into hers. In the span of so few minutes, she now found herself face to face with another person who was supposed to be dead. Her efforts to remain standing proved futile and she half-stumbled, half-collapsed to her knees in shock.

"No...you're...dead..." Yang fared little better as the weak protestation left her lips and stumbled backward.

 **"Yang! Ruby! It is so nice to see the two of you again! I do apologize for how we ended up meeting like this. That was your Bullhead out there wasn't it?"** That same melodic voice they all remembered reached their ears. Like Jaune's synthetic vocal chords, it too seemed unnaturally loud, easily filling the giant hall with its power.

Jaune retracted his shield and moved forward. "Uhhh yeah, that was them." He admitted sheepishly, looking back and forth between Pyrrha and the huntresses. "I uh...guess we kinda jumped the gun there."

 **"Oh dear..."** She shook her head and clasped her claws together. **"I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Friends I'm so sorry about the loss of your Bullhead, and for attacking you like that. We've had to endure so many intrusions, I admit I have developed a rather aggressive defense of this place. I assure you I'll make things right for you once things are in order. Come with me! Lets get out of this dreary spot and we can discuss things further!"** She extended one of her malformed claws towards Ruby who quickly struggled back in horror. Yang seemed unable to do more than gape, her mouth stuck in a comical "O" shape.

If Pyrrha seemed offended by the response, she hid it well as she pulled back. A smile peeked its way through the gruesome chitin covering her face and she turned to Jaune.

 **"Jaune, please be a dear and help them up would you? We should get them comfortable before speaking with them properly."** She beamed as happily as a demon could be, and sauntered back towards the massive double doors she had entered from earlier. Jaune hesitated for a moment, then slowly approached the shocked sisters. Yang seemed to be staring through him, unable to take her sight off the retreating demon. Ruby merely stared up into Jaune's eyes, who could only offer an embarrased shrug in return.

"Erm...Surprise?" He reached down to help Ruby up then shook Yang's shoulder.

"Jaune..." Ruby breathed. "...how is she-why didn't you... _what is going on!?_ "

Jaune shook his head. "I told you you wouldn't believe me. Kinda have to see it to believe it, and judging by your reactions, you still don't." He turned and looked back towards the doors. "Still kinda wish she'd waited a bit longer to show herself..." The trailing edge of Pyrrha's flowing red mane could be seen flicking past the doors and into the darkness beyond. "...would have probably been less of a shock I think." He looked back at Yang who was still staring forward, ignoring the conversation. Jaune reached out to shake her shoulder again when a yellow blur connected with the side of his ceramic jaw.

The impact rang throughout the hall and Jaune's head snapped sideways, sending him tumbling to the ground. Before he managed to right himself, Yang was on top of him, shoving her other gauntlet into his throat.

" _WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT JAUNE!? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?"_ Yang's eyes were glowing and wild. Terrified into a panicked rage, she was lashing out at the only thing she could. Jaune, surprised at the sudden attack, struggled to push the gauntlet and its barrel out of the way of his skull while fending off Yang's other arm from trying to punch him into oblivion. Ruby darted around her sister, screaming at her to calm down. They grappled for a few seconds more before a booming voice filled the chamber once again.

 _ **"Yang, please stop manhandling my guardian and come in here. We need to talk and have precious little time to do so."**_

Yang's head whipped around. Still astride Jaune and panting heavily, she glared back and forth between her quarry and the doors, like a lion unwilling to leave her kill.

"Yang."

The voice was gentle, friendly almost. Yet it still carried the weight of a command. She turned back to its source.

"We're not going to hurt you. Really. You or Ruby." Jaune's free gauntlet motioned towards the doors. "Before you blow my head off, can you at least hear what she has to say? Please?"

Yang appeared to be weighing the option of continuing her assault on Jaune for a few tense seconds before relenting and slowly pulled herself off the armored knight. Ruby rushed to her side, finding herself in the odd position of trying to calm down her older sister instead of the other way around. With another whine of servos, Jaune labored to his feet.

"I know you probably have a ton of questions. And probably also want to keep punching me." He looked towards Yang who nodded curtly. "All I ask is that you listen to what Pyrrha has to say. If you don't like it, you can have at me all you want. Deal?"

Yang didn't answer right away. Jaune could see her clenching and unclenching her fists behind her gauntlets, a more accurate indication of her feelings than reading her face at the moment. Yang turned to Ruby who smiled and nodded encouragingly back at her. With a small sigh she turned back to Jaune.

"Alright vomit boy, you win. Lets see what she has to say." She started walking forward, ignoring the looks she got from the others. With a shrug, Jaune followed behind the two sisters. As they reached the doors, he pressed a button on another hidden panel and they slowly slid closed behind them. Yang shot him a dangerous look.

"Controls for the door are right here." He pointed to the small panel. "Just taking precautions ok?" Yang said nothing as Jaune resumed the lead and took them deeper into the main chambers.

If the previous areas showed signs of battle, they might as well have been pristine compared to what lay before them. Whole sections of wall had been torn away and even larger holes were visible into the ceiling, revealing a starlit sky that tried to peek through. Even more unsettling were the corpses. Quite a few more were visible here, yet all bore the same hallmarks seen before, most were reduced to charred skeletons, with only a few lucky ones still clinging to bits of hair or clothing that identified them as once being human or faunus. Ruby tried her best to keep from gagging at the sight.

 **"It's unsettling, isn't it?"** Pyrrha's voice reached them from the other end of the chamber. She stood in front of the remains of a massive marble structure that was nestled between what had to have been matching marble columns. Most were toppled over, crushed into sections under their own weight and revealing holes in the ceiling they had once been supporting. As they drew closer, Ruby suddenly recognized the structure for what it was: a massive stone throne, similar to the one she had seen in her vision. A tattered cloak hung from an impaled spear on the face, and some kind of strange mechanism was perched next to it. It looked like some massive computer, connected to two cylinders, easily large enough to fit a human each. The tech looked like it had seen better days, several of the dials appeared smashed and the chassis was dented in several places.

"Real cozy place you got here." Yang grunted weakly. Like Ruby, she too was struggling to process the scene before her. "You decorate all of your living spaces with corpses or is that a new fad I need to be brought up to speed on?"

Pyrrha's golden eye squinted in merriment at the jab. **"Well the White Fang and Salem's underlings weren't my first decorating choice you see. They do have a tendency to smell after a while.** _**Those**_ **however, I think I'll keep around for posterity's sake, they were particularly hard to kill."**

She motioned to a pair of half-charred corpses that were impaled against one of the nearby walls. Though mostly burned away like the others, enough remained to easily identify who they once were. Yang's eyes went wide as she recognized the bodies as those of Cinder's closest allies, Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai.

 **"I understand if you're a bit upset. I'm sure you wanted a shot at him for what he's done to you and your family. Take solace in the fact he died screaming in agony."** Pyrrha smiled and took her place on the throne as if she were a queen preparing to pass judgement.

"Upset? Yeah you bet I'm upset." Yang growled. "I'm kinda upset about what the fuck is going on here. You going to tell me or do I have to start punching him again?" She motioned to Jaune who shifted uncomfortably at his position beside's Pyrrha's throne.

Pyrrha's smile twitched, yet her expression remained serene as she contemplated Yang's request. Steepling her claws together she leaned forward. **"Indeed? Tell me, what do you** _**think**_ **is going on here then?"**

"A fuckton of weird bullshit!" Yang roared back. Ruby jumped slightly, her face going pale as the moonlight filtering through the ceiling. "I see Grimm acting like they shouldn't be. I've been shot down, attacked by someone I haven't seen in over a year, and now I'm apparently talking with someone else who should be dead but looks like she's turned into a fucking Grimm!" She finished, breathing heavily.

 **"Quite a lot to take in isn't it? It's understandable how frustrating it must be, seeing so much and yet understanding so little. Reminds me of Ozpin's office all over again..."**

"Ozpin's...what? Start making sense goddamit!"

Pyrrha's grin widened. **"Very well, but before I do, I need to ask a question of you."** She extended a singular sharp talon at Yang. **"It's very important that you consider it carefully as it is critical to your understanding of the matter."**

Yang waved a gauntlet in irritation. "Yeah whatever, can't be more difficult to figure out than all the bullshit I've been through today."

 **"Tell me then...in all of your years on this world, what do you know of Death? Have you been close enough to see the line where the mortal world ends? Really felt it? Seen it?"**

A memory flickered within Yang's mind. A smirking mask clad in black and red. A searing stab of pain and agony. Her mechanical arm twitched at the memory.

She looked back at the demon who smiled broadly back at her. "Close to Death? You mean-?"

 **"Mmm I figured you would understand what I'm talking about."**

"I-" Yang stumbled with her reply. "I'm not sure."

Pyrrha frowned, appraising Yang for a moment then letting out a sigh. **"A pity. It would certainly help you understand things more clearly."**

"Try me then. Kinda tough to ask me about death when I'm standing right here aren't I?" Yang shot back.

 **"Very well I shall try."** She stood from the throne and strode briskly towards Yang and Ruby. Yang hesitated, then shifted on her heel in anticipation of a strike. Pyrrha stopped a few paces away, her face darkening as her eyes formed two burning embers in the gloom.

 **"I have seen Death, Yang. I have felt my soul, my very essence forcibly ripped away from my body. It was the attack on the Amity Colosseum...a night supposed to represent togetherness and joy, ripped apart by a twisted bitch who felt the world wronged her for some trivial reason."** She gestured angrily at the corpses of Emerald and Mercury. **"People like her, people like them know nothing, yet they scheme and scrabble for power they do not deserve, nor understand."**

Ruby finally had gathered the courage to speak. "Pyrrha...I don't understand, what do you mean? What power? Are you talking about Cinder?"

Ruby's eyes prickled again as Pyrrha's gaze turned upon her. Though the scowl had softened slightly, the anger, and the power still radiated from Pyrrha's grotesque form.

 **"Yes...it all comes back to her. Salem's prized lapdog. Doing her bidding, advancing her agenda. She was the one who set the explosives that killed me you know? That brought Amity Colosseum down into Beacon? All her and her minions..."** Her eyes closed as the ground around her feet began to crackle in fiery energy.

 **"They sought the power of my soul...the combined soul of the Fall Maiden and my own. Forced together because I didn't have the knowledge or the strength to reject Ozpin's request of me to take on the Mantle of the Fall Maiden."**

The circle of fiery energy widened, scorching yet more stone and tattered fabric that laid next to the throne. A lone skeleton laying nearby vaporized as the circle consumed it, growing ever larger as Pyrrha's rage mounted. **"That fool...Ozpin...** _ **and**_ **Salem. Both think themselves the stewards or conquerors of this world and know what's best for it! That they know what's best for our souls! FOR MY SOUL!"** Pyrrha's clawed fist smashed into a fallen section of column, the impact reducing it an explosion of gravel and dust.

 **"And that night...my soul was TAKEN! TAKEN from my body! My body was destroyed and my soul had nowhere to go! I died...but I did not. I was nothing more than a seething mass of energy and nothingness!"**

Pyrrha's eyes opened, wide and frantic, burning and swirling with eldritch energy as her mind relived that horrid night over and over again. Ruby felt like she was looking upon a cornered Grimm. Angry. Ferocious. Waiting to strike. The prickling grew stronger, power once again surging behind her skull, begging for release.

 **"Ahh the pain was beyond anything! More than a cut, more than a broken bone, or even a lost limb! It was all of those and more, swirling and burning without end, every second of every day!"**

Ruby felt like she was going to be sick. Being exposed to so much concentrated Grimm energy, it was the Dragon all over again-

"I don't understand!" Yang shouted. "How the hell are you here then!? And why do you look like you're turning into a Grimm!?"

It was as if a switch had been flipped within Pyrrha. One moment the building rage and energy threatened to scorch them all as the fiery ring spread towards them. Then like a fire extinguisher to an open flame, Yang's question appeared to calm Pyrrha instantly, the burning circle fizzling out, leaving only a circle of charred stone behind. Letting out a shuddering breath, Pyrrha turned to the strange machine by her throne and extracted a large glass cannister full of some iridescent black oil.

 **"All very good questions Yang. Both find their answers within this container."** She held out the cylinder towards her. **"Tell me, what do you think this is?"** As Pyrrha brought the vial closer, a scream and a flash of light erupted from behind them. Yang whipped around to see Ruby collapsed and writhing on the ground. Lances of searing light arced everywhere from her eyes like a fallen power transformer, scorching and blowing apart loose chunks of masonry and wall. Yang suddenly noticed Jaune had inserted himself between them and Ruby, his shield raised.

"What the hell are you doing to her!?" Yang yelled. "What's happening!?"

 **"I'm not surprised at her reaction. To a Silver Eyed Warrior, this vial might as well be concentrated radioactive waste."** With a casual glance towards Ruby's convulsing body, she walked the cannister back and placed it within the machine. As she sealed the lid of the machine shut, the white hot energy leaking from within Ruby retreated, leaving her in a twitching heap on the floor.

"Ruby!" Yang screamed. Shoving Jaune aside she rushed over. "Oh gods talk to me, are you ok!? Come on!" Feeling for a pulse, a sharp wave of relief rushed over her. Like in the bullhead, it was slow but steady. She turned to see Jaune once again taking his position beside the throne as Pyrrha re-took her seat.

"What the hell was in there?! What did you do to my sister?"

 **"The concentrated essence of Grimm. Within that vial is the blood of the Dragon that once occupied this very tower; the same one that attacked Beacon and summoned so many Grimm to it."** Yang's eyes widened as Ruby stirred feebly.

"Dragon's...what? What does that have do with you?"

 **"You remember the night the Dragon first attacked Beacon? The night of my...'ascension' into Maidenhood? When Grimm achieve incredible age, surviving and feeding on enough fear and hatred of countless generations, they undergo one final transformation. They become a mobile nexus for the Grimm, summoning and pulling Grimm from its blood. Wherever it goes, it allows more of them to pass through and enter this world."**

"You said...pass through. From where? How?"

Pyrrha regarded her claws an almost detached, clinical matter. **"Their world is-It is difficult to explain for someone who has not experienced it. I don't know if our soul was unique or all souls of those who die do this but..."** Her gaze turned towards Yang again, her eyes now glowing duller in the gloom. **"...I entered their world."**

Yang blinked.

 **"Yes. Whatever god-forsaken plane of existence the Grimm come from...my essence, or collection of souls traveled to it. Even now I don't fully understand the how or the why."** Gesturing at the numerous corpses littering the room, she continued. **"I...'joined' other souls there."**

Pyrrha paused again, closing her eyes and bowing her head with a deep shuddering breath. **"It was horrible. Imagine being adrift in the middle of an endless ocean filled with seething, screaming voices. All tearing at you, trying to dissolve you into nothingness."**

Pyrrha finally looked up and opened her eyes. **"In a way, I understand the Grimm better now. That searing pain...the concentrated agony. Only death and hate can spawn from such a place."** A hollow chuckle escaped her lips. **"I don't know why I didn't simply disappear in that madness. Most likely the power of the Fall Maiden's essence kept me whole somehow. It offered a beacon of clarity in the darkness. And while it fought and tore at my very being, I clutched it to my breast and discovered yet another wondrous gift."**

She turned to Jaune with a serene expression on her face, to which he returned with a quiet smile of his own. **"Though I was trapped there in that maelstrom, I was able to hear the very faintest whispers of this world. And if I concentrated hard enough, I could focus my efforts and home in on those closest to me in my old life."**

Pyrrha turned back to face them. **"In time I was able to finesse and manipulate my connection to this side, and eventually figured out how to communicate after a fashion. It was hard on both of us, the effort of forcing a link through the void takes its toll on both the mind and the body.** **But in time we came up with a solution that would bring me back to this reality.** **"** She gestured to the machine by the throne. **"You never were told about the processes which made me into the maiden were you?"**

Both huntresses slowly shook their heads. "N-no." Ruby mumbled quietly. "Ozpin mentioned something about the previous Maiden passing her powers onto you to help with the fight. Honestly I was just glad you were able to fight Cinder and-." Ruby started to smile but stopped as she saw the look Pyrrha was giving the machine in front of her. "Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha's claws had compressed themselves into tightly clutched fists, each crackling with fiery energy.

 **"Is that what he told you about the Maidens then?"** She shook her head in annoyance as the pent up energy dissipated. **"It figures he would give you the sanitized version. It would be a harder thing to sell if he had to tell you the power of the Maidens is passed only through their deaths. It's how the legend has spread throughout known history, each generation granting a random woman the incredible power and burden of Maidenhood, then taking it away as she passes from this world."**

Ruby cocked her head slightly. She had heard of the legends of the 4 Maidens since her childhood of course. 4 magical beings imbued with immense power, scattered across the lands performing amazing feats of strength and power, but just as quickly as they violently burst upon the world like a summer storm, they would vanish. For most of her life, she had counted the legend as just that, a legend. A fairytale told to console small children that there were still good and noble guardians out there, protecting them from the monsters in the dark. But there was no denying what Ruby had seen the night Cinder had attacked. The sight of Pyrrha cutting a fiery path onto the battlefield, obliterating whole legions of Grimm with a swing of her spear made her realize the legend was all too uncomfortably real. What other childhood stories had some powerful core of truth within them?

"You said the Maiden has to die in order to pass on her powers. How did it happen? Why did you get her powers?" Ruby asked quietly.

The look that crossed Pyrrha's face was not something that Ruby had been expecting from someone who was capable of vaporizing an entire stone column. Pyrrha rested her claw on the strange machine beside her throne. When she spoke, it was the words of someone recounting some horrible memory, of something they wish they could forget.

 **"The Fall Maiden did not die exactly Ruby. When Ozpin found her, she was in a terrible state. Cinder apparently had tracked her down before he had located her and attacked her. She was basically a living corpse by the time she was rescued."** She tapped one of the cylinders attached to the machine. **"Ozpin for all his faults is at least a capable inventor and scientist. He built this device...both as a means of life support for the Fall Maiden...and to be her ultimate sarcophagus."**

Pyrrha clutched her arms and looked down. **"Had we let her die naturally...maybe helped along with Dust narcotics, it's possible the powers would have transferred to me anyway. I had been spending time with her, communicating with her as much as her semi-conscious state would allow...but Ozpin did not wish to leave such a thing to chance. 'Too great a risk' was a favorite phrase of his."**

Pyrrha's eyes opened to look towards Ruby and Yang once more, but whatever those burning eyes saw, it was not a pair of terrified huntresses standing in front of her. **"And so...the essence-no the** ** _soul_** **of the Fall Maiden was forcibly ripped from her dying body and transferred into me, her new vessel. Our minds, our memories, our feelings all swirled together into a new consciousness; and the new Fall Maiden was born."**

She turned to walk around the machine. **"Judging by the looks on your faces, it is as horrific as it sounds. Imagine having to relieve that experience for weeks. Those early days...those are sensations I would not even wish even upon the gods themselves. But with this procedure, we also gained an important nugget of knowledge about the viability of soul transfer. I was the apparent guinea pig, and with my success, Ozpin immediately continued his research up until the point he disappeared. With his recovered notes, we theorized the machine could be used the same way to bring me back into this world, all we needed was a host with an incredibly strong connection to me. Someone intimately familiar with my mortal existence."**

"Cinder..." Ruby whispered. Pyrrha flashed a toothy smile.

 **"Indeed. By killing me and trying to take the power of the Fall Maiden, she had formed a sort of bond with my soul in the process. A connection to her body. The essence of the maiden struggled with every passing moment, trying to break from me and join its new master. In other words, it knew where to go. All I had to do was tag along with it. And thanks to the efforts of Jaune and my link with Cinder, he was able to find me my host and bring her here to Beacon to complete the process."**

Pyrrha barked a short, mirthless laugh. **"It's funny. In the end, I gave her what she desired...and it devoured her for her greed."** She walked towards the huntresses.

 **"So that's where we are. The same machine that set me on this cursed path was also the one to bring me back to this world...even if there were some side effects along the way."** She idly scratched the chitin forming on her legs.

"But then..." Yang motioned towards the gaping hole in the structure. "...what did the dragon have to do with all this? "

Pyrrha folded her arms. **"Recall that I mentioned the Dragon had the ability to pull Grimm into this world. We simply made use of its immense power to complete the process of bringing me here. To it, I was nothing more than one last Grimm essence trying to get through.** **But doing so seems to have been too much for that rotting carcass to bear. A pity, I could have figured other uses for it."**

"I'm sure you would." Yang growled.

 **"You still don't trust me do you?"**

"No I don't. You're still a Grimm, just wearing a Pyrrha coat of paint." Pyrrha's eyes narrowed. "You yanked us out of the sky and the Grimm are acting all weird here. Sorry if I'm not exactly tripping over myself to welcome you back."

Pyrrha surveyed Yang with a blank expression for a moment that seemed to stretch out into eternity. **"I suppose it's understandable that apologies or tales of my resurrection would not suffice. Nor would they bring your Bullhead back would they? Perhaps a measure of good faith then to show you my sincerity that I wish you no harm."** She looked to her guardian. **"Jaune? I believe we still have the package from our previous guests?"**

Jaune moved from beside the throne and came towards Yang, then paused halfway as her glare met his eyes. Deciding on the safer course of action, he tossed a large case towards her. "Here."

Yang started, then reached out awkwardly to catch the armored suitcase flying towards her, nearly bowling her over in the process. For a brief moment of terror, the weight of the case reminded her of the bundle of satchel charges she had pulled from the gunship. When it didn't explode in her hands, her fear was immediately replaced by curiosity as she heard something rattling inside.

"What is this?" She looked back up at Jaune.

"Trust me, it's not going to hurt you. Better you have it than the White Fang honestly." Jaune motioned towards the case then turned to take his place at Pyrrha's side once again. Yang set the case down next to Ruby and flipped it open with a sharp intake of breath. Inside was perhaps the biggest pile of Lien cards she had ever seen in her life. Countless 100 and 500 lien chips, whole bundles of 1000s, and even an entire stack of 5000 Lien cards tucked into a divot in the lid. She didn't even know they went that high.

"How the-?" Yang blurted.

"You'd be amazed how desperate the White Fang have become lately." Jaune smiled awkwardly. "Tethering their cart to Salem and Cinder's horse hasn't worked out for them too well since the fall of Beacon and...well..." He pointed to the case. "...promise enough 'Stolen Beacon tech' and they'll practically trip over themselves trying to secure something to give them an edge in all this. That's all the leftover money I had from getting everything ready to bring Pyrrha back. It's yours if you want."

"Holy cookies..." Ruby whispered as she knelt over the case. She too had never seen a collection of Lien cards that big outside of an Atlas bank.

"Why are you doing this?" Yang had stood up and looked back towards Pyrrha and Jaune. "What's your angle?"

 **"My angle?"**

"You don't just toss a box of Lien this big and not have strings trailing from it. I live in the real world remember?" Yang pointed at the case. "What's the catch if I walk out of here with this? Or are you even going to let us walk out of here at all?"

The question hung in the air before Pyrrha responded with a warm smile.

 **"You've got a sharp eye under those scars."** She gestured to the case. **"In all truthfulness, I genuinely do feel bad about how our reunion came to be. And I do wish to recompense you for the trouble...but yes I suppose there are some 'strings' attached to that pile of Lien there."**

Pyrrha's gaze matched with Yang, powerful and unflinching. **"We will let you walk out here unharmed and unmolested. You get to keep all of the Lien in that case** - **But!"** She held up a long, spiny finger. " **In exchange, you cannot tell anyone about our presence here. You walk out of that door, even the front door if you so choose-the Grimm won't trouble you-but no one can know that I'm back in the land of the living. At least not yet..."**

Ruby shared a look with her sister. "So...you are the one controlling the Grimm then..."

 **"It is not a difficult thing, controlling the likes of them. All that matters is that you are stronger and the Grimm will bow to you."** She tapped her claws together. From behind her throne, a pair of Alphas crawled silently from the shadows, their heads bowed in total submission.

"Holy!-" Yang began, but Pyrrha held up a clawed hand stopping her outburst. With a flick of her talon, she pointed at one, than the other. For a brief second, the two stood immobile, flanking each side of the throne. Then without warning, one of the Alphas leaped over the throne and slammed into the other, knocking it to the ground. The attacking Alpha spared no quarter and followed through on its prone comrade, grasping the head with its massive claws and with a sickening * _CRUNCH*_ that echoed loudly across the room, broke its neck.

Ruby gaped at the dissolving Grimm then looked up to see the other Alpha disappearing behind the throne. It had all happened in the span of just a few seconds at Pyrrha's direction. Not a fight...but an execution. Was this really the power she held at her command? To control that legion of monsters outside? She glanced over towards Jaune who was keeping a careful eye on the retreating Alpha. For once his stoic demeanor had shifted slightly. There was tension in his eyes...a real genuine unease that he quickly masked as soon as he noticed Ruby's gaze.

Yang remained standing in place, her lilac eyes once again a fiery crimson, yet not daring to move a muscle nor utter a sound. She too was following the path of the Alpha as it retreated quietly behind the crumbling throne which Pyrrha had reoccupied.

There was that look again. The way Pyrrha sat upon it. Yang had seen that look once before, from a masked face that held a haughty look of triumph that had heralded an explosion of pain so many years ago. And it was staring back at her once again. But unlike last time, there was no pain, no flash of red steel hurtling towards her. Was she really going to let them walk out of here? She looked down at the case and then back up.

 **"I can tell you have questions Yang. Surely I think I have earned the right for you to speak freely in front of me?"**

Yang gulped slightly, then licked her chapped lips. "So we get to walk out of here then? Unharmed?"

 **"I thought we had already established that."** Pyrrha sighed audibly. **"Yes...once again, you and Ruby may leave here along with that case of Lien under the condition you tell no one of our presence. A fair transaction all around I think."**

"What are you going to do with all the Grimm here? There's a whole shitton outside you know."

 **"A fact I'm duly aware of thank you. What I have planned for them is not your concern at the moment. Just know that I mean the two of you no harm."**

"What if I _am_ concerned?" Yang shifted slightly, her gaze not leaving Pyrrha. "You asking me to walk away from all this is a pretty tall order you know."

 **"An order for which I am paying you handsomely to comply with. I'm sure whatever is in that case dwarfs whatever contract Goodwitch and the rest of the hunter contingent here are providing you."**

Yang took a step forward. "You know about the hunters here?"

Pyrrha waved idly towards the window. **"Of course I do, they send out patrols and drones nearly every other day watching this place and being a general nuisance. It makes it difficult for Jaune to leave without being seen. Every now and again a drone will get too close and I have to swat it out of the sky, but even that hasn't happened in several days."** Pyrrha glanced at Ruby, then at Yang. **"I don't suppose the two of you would happen to know why that is?"**


	9. Chapter 3 Part 7 Epilogue

The room went deathly quiet. Ruby glanced sideways at Yang who continued to match glares with Pyrrha. Even Jaune seemed to be interested in where this question was leading as his gaze shifted subtly back towards Ruby.

"Can't say." Yang replied deadpan. "We were hired to fill out a contract, I didn't ask about their day to day ops."

 **"Really now?"** Pyrrha arched an eyebrow. **"Ignoring intelligence about the mission and blindly rushing into danger? Are you back at your initiation or are you really a huntress?"**

The bait dangled but Yang didn't bite. Though her eyes remained a fiery crimson, she simply reached down and grabbed the briefcase and turned to leave. "Deal's a deal then. I'll be sure to thank your Grimm fans on the way out." Yang grunted as she started towards the entrance to the chamber. She had gone several steps before she noted that Ruby wasn't following her.

Ruby stood between the throne and Yang's retreating figure, throwing worried glances between each one as she fiddled with the edge of her scarf.

"Ruby come on, lets get out of here before she changes her mind." Yang ordered.

"But Yang what about Beacon? What are we going to tell Professor Goodwitch when we get back?"

"I'm sure we can figure something out sis. I think they'll just be happy we're not dead. Come on lets get going."

"But-!" Ruby began before being cut off.

"But nothing! Lets go! Deal's done! We're walking out here on our own two feet. End of mission!"

 **"It sounds to me like she has something to say Yang. Do you always override your sister's wishes or is that just standard big-sister privileges?"**

This bait sunk the hook nice and deep. Yang whipped around and strode forcefully towards the marble throne. Jaune was already moving to intercept her when Ruby's voice cut across the room.

"Dammit Yang! That's enough! We can't just leave it like this!"

"Ruby-!" Yang tried to yell back but was cut off.

"No! This is wrong Yang! She's letting us walk out of here, she deserves to know!"

 **"What do I need to know Ruby?"** Pyrrha had already stood up from her throne and Jaune had shifted closer to her, his gaze fixed on Yang but flicking to Ruby every few seconds.

Ruby turned to face her. "Before I say anything, I need to know something. I need you to be honest with me...this affects more than just you or me ok?"

Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow. **"I feel I have been honest with you two, but I make no promises on how much I can reveal. My existence cannot be made public. Least of all to Goodwitch and her hunters."**

"Alright." Ruby nodded. "That's actually what I wanted to ask you about. Are you planning to attack Goodwitch's camp?"

Pyrrha waved a claw dismissively. **"I have no intention of doing so. They are an annoyance yes, but short of them launching a full out assault on this tower, I am content to swat the occasional drone out of the sky and nothing more."**

"And the Grimm outside? I'm sure you're just collecting them for fun then huh?" Yang butted in from behind Ruby.

Pyrrha's glare swiveled in Yang's direction.

"No. She's right Pyrrha. We need to know what you're doing with them." Ruby continued quietly, an edge of tension creeping into her voice.

 **"I believe we've already covered that point. The Grimm do not concern you. I promised you they won't harm you or Goodwitch, that should be enough."** Pyrrha finished firmly.

Ruby stepped forward. "It isn't enough Pyrrha."

 **"You know I don't recall you being this annoying when were classmates Ruby, you pick this up from Yang or-?"**

Ruby cut her off. "Goodwitch asked us to investigate the tower to find out what's going on in here. Ever since the Dragon exploded they've been focused on what's causing the Grimm to remain around the tower." Ruby pointed out a hole in the wall.

 **"Obviously. Why else would they send you on such a-"** Ruby cut her off again.

"I don't know if you've actually taken a good look outside and seen how many Grimm you've attracted, but it's bigger than anyone's ever seen!" Ruby jerked her finger outside again. "And they're _bowing_ to you! Forming ranks! Goodwitch thinks some new Dragon is inside here gathering Grimm for an assault and the kingdoms are preparing to destroy Beacon to deal with it! They're terrified Pyrrha! If we weren't able to figure out what was going on in here, they're going to bomb the place! Beacon is going to be wiped off of the face of Remnant!" Ruby finished in a panicked torrent.

The Daemonette and the Knight exchanged a shocked look then turned back to Ruby. **"I see...you're certain of this? When will it happen?"**

Ruby shuffled back slightly as Pyrrha closed the distance between them, the familiar pressure once again building in her skull. "I-I don't know! Goodwitch made it seem like it was happening soon! She said we were her 'last option' before she'd report this to the other kingdoms." Ruby looked up. "What are you going to do?"

The uncomfortable silence had returned to the throne room once again. Four pairs of eyes flickered back and forth to one another, each appraising the situation and each other.

 **"You didn't have to tell me all this. You could have walked away with the money and I wouldn't have been the wiser..."** Pyrrha murmured, turning away and walking towards one of the larger holes in the throne room. From this far up, the vantage gave her an unobstructed view of the ruins of Beacon and the Grimm contained within. The seething mass of roiling red eyes in arrayed circles around the tower was unmistakable. Within it lied the key to Remnant's salvation. To crush those who had wronged her, who would wrong others...writing the tales like the others had, the ones long since passed into legend and bedtime story.

But...the timetable was all wrong. Her hand was being forced. Which meant having to take risks she had been hoping to avoid. Looking over her shoulder she stared at her two former classmates. They had been friends once. Comrades in arms fighting against the very thing she had become. Could they really join her? Would they even believe her words?

"I mean sure you're certainly...uh...spikier than the last time we saw you..." Ruby began with a half smile. Jaune's eyes widened slightly. "...but I mean you're still Pyrrha. Either of you could have attacked us by now, so I have to believe that there's still a good heart beating underneath that armor you wear. We want to help, we just-"

 **"Thank you Ruby."** Pyrrha interrupted gently. **"And you're right, I suppose asking you to walk away from something like this would have been too much to ask. And being forced to fabricate something that would pass Goodwitch's muster...well I don't think even the Lien would have been enough to make that happen."** In spite of the tension in the room, there was no mistaking the half-chuckle that Yang tried to suppress. Pyrrha resumed her seat and held out her claws.

 **"Very well Ruby. Yang. My plan is straightforward. I will reform this world."**

Yang didn't even try to suppress her laughter this time. "Uhh...not sure if you know what straightforward means there Pyrrha."

Pyrrha's confident smile radiated back. **"Indeed, however the plan becomes simple when one uses the enemy's weapons against them is it not? Salem is in pursuit of the Maidens and their powers. She wishes to conquer and control this land under magic, claw and bone. However she has never calculated the possibility that there would be another who could exert control over these demons like she can. I will exploit that arrogance to my advantage. I will locate the Maidens before she does. I will become their Guardian, like Jaune has been for me. The Maidens will never again be used as pawns in some greater game!"**

Pyrrha stood from the throne, her conviction palpable upon the others in the room. **"And with the Maidens secure under my protection, I will gather every last Grimm I can find on Remnant..."**

A cacophany of roars erupted from outside of the tower. It sounded like the entire horde was voicing its approval at Pyrrha's plans. **"...and I will send her kingdom back into the hell from which it spawned!"**

* * *

 _Epilogue_

 _Patch had become quite a busy place in the past year. With Beacon gone, the local academy had augmented itself with out of work hunters and would-be hunters desperate to finish their training and certifications. New buildings were being constructed as fast as supplies could be docked at the pier, and the newly appointed headmaster, Taiyang XiaoLong, had been reportedly considering dredging artificial sandbars to make more space for the burgeoning facility. With the increased activity came all the trappings and business that exist to support such an enterprise, and no better example of that existed on the island than what had happened to the local tavern: The Dust Crystal._

 _Starting as a dingy little shack that originally catered to the local fishermen who plied the ocean around the island, the increased traffic allowed it to expand into a fully fledged hotel. And while the increased business was certainly impressive, the core of the place was still the bar, where all manner of hunter or construction worker ended their day with a pint and some peanuts. The bar had expanded accordingly of course with the increased traffic, and the island had recently restored local CCTV service, which, at least for this section of the world, broadcast the local goings on across several large dust-glass TVs mounted above the bar. Tuned to various sports and nature shows, they served as mainly a source of background noise on most nights with folks only really paying attention during the annual dust-bowl championships._

 _So when all four screens simultaneously flashed red with a large "BREAKING NEWS" plastered across each screen, even the most inebriated patron present took notice. The effect was almost instantaneous. Nearly all conversation ceased. Drinks were put down, billiard matches were paused, and darts were nervously fiddled in players' hands as all eyes locked upon the screens. Just a few years before, seeing something like this would have been met with a collective groan and a few more rowdy patrons demanding the channel be changed to something else._

 _The head barman had been around for those times. He remembered even dodging a few glasses thrown his way when he had insisted on seeing what the news was about. Now he simply put down the glass he had been cleaning and pulled the remotes from his pocket, upping the sound volume to maximum to make sure everyone could hear. It wasn't really necessary._

 _"Good evening everyone, this is lead correspondent Lisa Lavender from CCTV Vale with an urgent news update."_

 _It was the expression of the news anchor that sent a nervous murmur rippling through the crowd. Normally known as one who kept a tight lid on her emotions during a broadcast, even to the point that some of her critics referred to as the "wooden woman" in some less polite circles, the once carefully manicured appearance of Lisa Lavender had been replaced by someone who appeared to have been instructed that the sum of 2+2 was now a potato. Her once perfectly combed hair was ruffled and her mic was haphazardly clipped to her lapel, the wire dangling freely as she quickly shuffled papers on her desk._

 _"Fragmented reports are now coming in from the hunter contingent stationed at the former Beacon Campus. As some of you may know, Beacon was overrun by the Grimm in two separate incidents, culminating with the crash of the Amity Colosseum during the Vytal festival two years ago. To this point, efforts to cleanse the Grimm infestation to allow repair and recovery operations to begin have not been successful, with the kingdoms of Vale and Mystral admitting several months ago that the facility may have to be abandoned due to the concentration of the foul beasts."_

 _On screen, the anchor appeared to be searching for another document. Reaching out of view of the camera, she pulled a crammed folio of notes towards her and flipped it open._

 _"In the past 12 hours we recently received word that the Grimm appear to be migrating out of the campus in what appears to be a coordinated exodus. Grimm experts have not yet determined what has caused the sudden migration, and initial assessments from both Signal and Haven claim that this is possibly the biggest single concentration of Grimm not seen since the invasion of Beacon itself."_

 _Lisa stammered as she flipped over the papers. It appeared she hadn't time to prepare properly with what she had to say._

 _"Neither the head of the cleanup operations, Glynda Goodwitch, nor any local Vale authorities were available for comment. We have received word that all available hunters in the immediate area surrounding the former Beacon Campus have been recalled to assist local Vale authorities with tracking the path of the horde. Sources within the Mystral government claim that Atlas is mobilizing a strike force to attempt to intercept the threat, but this has not been confirmed by any kingdom official."_

 _"Come on...come on. Where the hell are the damn things going though?" A patron near the billiard tables whispered urgently to no one in particular. "I got family over there..."_

 _A rumble of murmurs and gasps rippled through the crowd again as aerial shots of the horde became visible on the screen. Even from the extreme distance and height they were taken from, there was no mistaking the ugly black scar of Grimm carving its way across the landscape. The reporter had not exaggerated. The Grimm were keeping to a narrow file, not spreading out into a massive wall like they tended to do in attacks on settlements. Lisa's voice came over the TVs once again._

 _"As you can see from these shots taken by a local bullhead patrol, the horde appear to be making their way towards the northern coast of Vale. Kingdom Authorities are urging evacuations of any settlements to the north and west of the former Beacon campus. Temporary shelters are being set up in-"_

 _Lisa continued on with her litany of facts about the crisis. Many had stopped listening altogether and looked at one another. A few got up from their seats and tables and hurried out of the bar. It didn't take much guessing on the parts of those who stayed behind why they left in such a hurry. The once cheery atmosphere had been tainted with that familiar yet unwelcome tension that many had become accustomed with since Beacon's Fall._

 _Another Grimm Attack._

 _More Hunters needed._

 _More settlements destroyed._

 _The patrons had been accustomed to a more dangerous world in these intervening years. Places like the Hunter academies were once seen as unassailable compounds, Beacon in particular with its location on top of a sheer cliff._

 _No longer._

 _The world was changing once again. And while the inhabitants of Patch had, for the most part, remained unscathed from conflicts on the mainland, the images on the TVs hanging over the bar were a stark reminder that danger was not far from their shores. The island natives stared at their glasses and fiddled with peanut shells and wondered what fresh horrors awaited those unlucky to be on the mainland. The thought didn't bear contemplating for very long._


	10. Epilogue 2

_The command center buzzed with activity. To the uninitiated, it resembled nothing more than a particularly busy military office. Orderlies and Signals Operators running to and fro, passing information to whatever officers demanded such things. To anyone who had spent more than a passing time in the service, the scene was decidedly less mundane._

 _The urgency which everyone worked..._

 _No chit chat between the operators..._

 _And a center panel that glowed with hundreds of red icons, forming a crimson tide that took up the vast majority of the dust-crystal display. Blue icons were scattered in small clusters surrounding and ahead of the red wave, looking as small and isolated as everyone thought they were from this vantage point._

 _Ten thousand Grimm. And counting. An almost unimaginable force, unseen in the annals of history. Before it stood a mere thousand hunters... and that classification could be considered generous for many of them, especially given the incredibly short notice they had been given to prepare a reactionary force to this incursion._

 _General Ruondo shook her head and looked around at the rest of her command team. Goodwich from Beacon, looking as ragged as her forces, the last remaining hunters to escape their thrice-doomed school, exhausted by their long flight from the Grimm legion fast approaching. General Ironwood was also here, fast-tracked with as many soldiers as the Atlesian military could spare, obviously chafing at not having been put in charge of this venture, but equally necessary to its success. The General hid her further surprise at the presence of Weiss Schnee, supposedly sent to represent of the interests of her family's empire. Word was that the path of the monsters would swallow up several large dust operations run by their empire on this continent. Yet others whispered she was here more to verify the supposed sightings of a rogue Atlas Mech seen amidst the Grimm army. Then there was the delegation from the White Fang...or at least the faction not openly at war with humanity at the moment. Blake Belladonna and her personal retinue of Faunus Hunters stood apart from the others, more by unspoken agreement than anything else, their piercing eyes locked upon the main display like most of the others assembled in the room._

 _In any other time it would be a formidable force, one of the greatest unions of military might Remnant had seen in generations but would it be enough? Ruondo turned back towards the map as the most recent scouting report concluded. "...the Grimm army continues to march in formation, any drones that we send are swiftly shot down, the only hunter scout teams that have returned are those that fled immediately upon engagement with the enemy. At their current pace we estimate the vanguard is mere hours away, the bulk of their forces will have overrun this position within a day if we do slow them down." The huntress providing the report finished and wiped a speck of blood off of the data slate. Her team had been the closest to the eastern flank, and had barely managed to pull away before being overrun._

 _"Thank you, dismissed." Ruondo stated with a nod before turning to address the rest. "We have a day, even ignoring their previously unseen levels of organization we have no chance against their number in open battle, our only chance is to fortify this pass, funnel their numbers, delay and destroy while other forces arrive to-"_

 _The explanation was interrupted by a dark-haired hunter rushing into the room followed by a shorter orange-haired woman. Her eyes narrowing at the disruption, Ruondo yet noticed a flash of recognition come over the Weiss girl. "Madame General," the intruder breathlessly stated, barely remembering to throw up a salute. "The front line of the Grimm, it has stopped, you have to-"_

 _He gasped for air as he clutched his chest. His companion gently supported him while he recovered himself. Turning to face the general, the girl continued." It doesn't make much sense ma'am but...they've raised a flag of parley. A freaking Alpha is holding a flag!"_

 _Shock spread throughout the room. The behavior of the Grimm had already caused mass confusion amongst all of the nearby governments. The militaristic organization, the way the nigh-endless force's path had woven to avoid major population centers and now this? Looks of puzzlement and fear bounced between the various commanders._

 _"Show me." Ruondo stated, the first to move she walked out of the tent, the two interrupting hunters at her side and the rest hurrying to catch up. Making their way through the camp they headed up the ramp of one of the parapets, one of many makeshift fortifications currently being erected by a fleet of Ak-200 bots provided by the Atlas military. Soldiers and hunters pressed into service made a path for the delegation, the shimmering array of medals and brass was enough of a warning for even the youngest hunter trainee to get out of their way._

 _At the top of the tower, another faunus was present much to everyone's surprise. This one was blonde with scraggly blonde hair with a matching tail that swished back and forth in excitement or fear, the General couldn't tell which. Turning on hearing them approach, the hunter nodded grimly before leading Ruondo to one of the windows and handing her a pair of binoculars._

 _"Hard to believe it myself ma'am, but...well take a look..."_

 _Her breath caught in her throat. Looking down the valley to a massive floodplain beyond, the horde stood before her. Seeing it through her lenses, the pict-slates and reports hardly did it justice. Less a horde and more a demonic battering ram, the Grimm phalanx was just as organized as had been reported. A bulwark of Goliaths and Deathstalkers formed abreast on the front lines with packs of smaller Alphas and other Grimm equally dispersed between them. If the sight of these vile beasts wasn't making her stomach clench into an acid filled ball, she would have praised the tactical disposition as a work of art._

 _As her spectacles panned across the mass of Grimm, she finally laid eyes upon what the two hunters had been talking about. Out in front of the center of the formation, she could barely see a massive alpha waving a bright, crimson flag._

 _"Started doing it just a few minutes ago...never thought I'd see the day but-" the faunus began._

 _"Something's happening." Ruondo interrupted. Silence descended amongst them as others crowded around the observation platform, somehow the two interrupting hunters and the Weiss girl had made it to the front to look on with their own spectacles. As they watched, the front ranks of the Grimm parted, revealing three small and one large humanoid moving to join the flagbearer. Even from this distance Ruondo could make the largest was indeed some kind of Atlas mech, but the make and model eluded her. And she was positive that Atlas HK bots did not have dirty blonde hair as one of their features._

 _Glancing sideways at the Heiress, she could see fear creasing her face, her alabaster skin going yet more pale in the late afternoon sun._

 _Suddenly a sound washed over the entire camp. A wailing, bone-chilling voice, as if a million Grimm calling out in unison, their animistic cries somehow converging to form something that sounded like a womans voice, yet filled their hearts with existential dread. A wave of nervous murmuring from Hunter and Atlas trooper alike followed. Only the AK bots managed to match the quiet stoicism of General Ironwood and Ruondo as they continued to survey the scene, their knuckles white as they gripped their binoculars._

 _ **"To the Commander of the Hunter forces. My name is Pyrrha Nikos, Fall Maiden, Guardian of Remnant. My quarrel is not with you, but you are in my way. As a gesture of good faith I return to you those of your people who refused to flee before my forces."**_

 _As the words echoed through the valley, another gap formed in the Grimm line. Surrounded by a circle of Alphas, a large group of_ _thoroughly_ _bedraggled troops and civilians became visible. An Alpha near the front motioned to the closest soldier wearing a bloody bandage over his eye and pointed towards the defensive line. Though the General could not hear what was being said, the expressions of the troops told it clear enough. Walking slowly at first, then breaking into as fast a run as their injured bodies would allow, the freed prisoners crossed the no-mans land towards the human_ _encampment_ _, amazed and confused at their salvation._

 _As the prisoners crossed the halfway mark, the unearthly powerful voice echoed across the valley once more._

 __ _ **"We all know that we did not have to spare those people. In any other time, they would be our enemy, and dispatched accordingly. However our true enemy lies beyond your lines, beyond the petty squabbles of your kings and borders. The choice is now yours - disperse now or join forces, you have one hour to decide your fate."**_

 _As the unearthly words echoed through the pass, the assembled forces froze in shock. At the center of it all Ruondo and Ironwood stood side by side, each more shocked than the next even as additional humans streamed out from the Grimm lines, sprinting full-speed across the field..._

 _"General Ironwood..." Ruondo's voice croaked. To her mounting horror, Ironwood looked about as frightened as she felt. "...what do we do?"_


End file.
